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Memories Series: My Earliest Memory

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 02:23:00 +0000

My earliest memory is probably when I was 2 or 3 years old. My parents and I lived in a condo apartment in Federal Way, WA. I remember sitting on the carpeted steps next to the dining area and looking out the window down onto the garbage dumpster below us. I would watch the garbage truck stop by a couple times a week to lift the dumpster over itself to dump trash into its rear.

Not an actual picture of little Cam observing a garbage truck.

As a child, I think I was fascinated by it. I'm pretty sure being a garbage man was the first job I wanted. I remember my mom laughing at that. Probably good that it didn't pan out.

No One Ever Leaves

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Sat, 29 Oct 2022 04:37:00 +0000

The title of this post was a phrase that I often uttered during my 13+ years at Microsoft Production Studios. You see, that place has a way of holding onto people, or bringing them back. Over my time there, I've seen so many people leave. People who I thought I would never see again, only to have them return in some form or capacity.

And here I am, barely 14 months later, walking back into Microsoft Production Studios.

How did this happen?

Well, first you have to understand why I left. For one, I was overworked and burnt out. For years, it had just been me and the Chief of IT taking care of all of the IT and network systems in that building. As I mentioned in my older blog post, there were some rough times. Two network admins were hired to help, along with a server room technician. However, they were from different vendor companies, so collaborating with them was sometimes tricky. When I realized that it seemed like I wouldn't be able to lead a team at Production Studios, I considered leaving. A friend reached out about a Sr. Systems Administrator position at ThriftBooks, and you know that story by now.

What many people don't know is that when I left Microsoft, I was immediately contacted by another contract vendor company asking me if I wanted my old job back. With greater pay, too. I told them that I wouldn't be interested unless I could be IT Lead. I need to advance my career. I was told that was something that wouldn't be possible right now, so it was left at that.

That was July 2021, so now we flash forward to July 2022 and I receive another call from the contract vendor company. I'm told that things have changed and now they are willing to let me be IT Lead for a team of six IT professionals at Microsoft Production Studios. Something I've been wanting for at least 10 years was now being offered to me.

I couldn't say no, but I also couldn't say yes right away. Look, I love ThriftBooks. Genuinely and sincerely love ThriftBooks. I think they're an amazing company that still has tons of room to grow. The office was only a half-hour away and I got to work from home three days per week. I adored my team and consider them one of the best IT teams on this planet. My boss was very ambitious, but he cared about his team and supporting the company. I've learned a lot about what a good leader looks like, and he will go down in Cameron History as one of the best bosses I've ever had the privilege of reporting to.

Yet here's an opportunity to lead an IT team of my own and take everything that I have learned in my 18+ years of experience to build something awesome. I would not have taken this job if I didn't think I was ready, but there's a lot of work ahead.

Stepping back in Microsoft Production Studios and I'm seeing red. Only literally as there's new carpet and paint on the walls and they are the color red. The place has changed a lot even in the 14 months that I have been away. Half of the faces I am meeting are new while the other half are old friends. Everyone, and I mean everyone, has been incredibly warm and welcoming with my return. I'm not going to lie, it feels good. I just hope I can live up to everyone's expectations.

My team is half-full, so I need to hire three more individuals for various IT roles, including a Network Engineer, an Applications Engineer, and a Sr. Network Engineer. No easy feat in this job market right now, but we're going to do the best we can. I'm determined to build a team that anyone would be happy and proud to be on. A team that is not afraid to tackle anything, that is always looking to improve, and that supports one another. I want to cultivate loyalty, curiosity, and empowerment.

I am blessed to have been given this role. I still have a long way to go before I reach the finish line, but I have renewed energy driving me. I'm really excited to see where this road takes me. Thanks for having me back, Microsoft!

The Coronavirus Endemic

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 01:47:00 +0000

Two years.

The past two years have been a tragic comedy of life experiences that no one should have to go through in such a short amount of time. Social justice, murder hornets, staffing issues, insurrection, inflation, looting, wildfires, wars... the hits just keep on coming.

And what have we learned from living through all this while a global pandemic is happening? Not much.

I didn't want to inject too much of my opinion and conjecture into these coronavirus posts, but as we're reaching the end of the general public's concern for this virus, it's hard not to want to reflect. I want to clarify again that I am just a normal dude of no medical knowledge or background who happens to read the news and keep up with current events everyday. These are just my thoughts and observations.

Our government and media organizations told us to help "flatten the curve" by quarantining and only going out for essentials while wearing masks. I've never seen so much unity in our country; most, if not all, were following the guidelines, at first. Companies were advertising on TV thanking us for how good of a job we were doing and that we're all in this together. Thanks, multi-million dollar corporations!

Nevermind that this eventually divided our country and world more than ever before.

I've never witnessed so much anger come from people. Masked vs. unmasked, vaxxed vs. anti-vax, family Christmas dinner vs. no family Christmas dinner. We became even more of a society that just wanted to tell people what to do and how to live.

Nevermind that health experts were calling for eye protection from the beginning, too.

Did you know that your eyes contain a similar mucosal lining that exists in your nose and mouth? The same type of membranes that can come in contact with your contaminated hands or infected respiratory droplets hanging around in the air. Even Lord Fauci suggested wearing goggles or eye shields. But I'll tell you what... not a peep from the mask crowd. I assume that a face mask is fine, but goggles or glasses are just a little too inconvenient. *pout, pout* Doctors and nurses wore them. You know who didn't? The general public.

Nevermind that Mrs. DIY's mask was sewn together herself with $8 per yard Harry Potter fabric.

Can you believe that in only the last few months, the federal government and media outlets have finally come out against homemade or cloth masks for actual N95 masks because they actually offer proper protection. Was it just to help make people feel good or something? I don't know, but this one still baffles me. Just for the record, it took the U.S. government almost two years to send out free testing kits and proper masks to the public. Efficiency.

Nevermind that we'll be impacted by this pandemic for years to come.

The economy, anxiety, death, broken social ties, mistrust, sickness, depression... the list goes on. How did we address it? Well, the government threw money at it. Schools made kids sit in front of a webcam and stare at each other's faces all day. Which no one took a step back to consider how it impacts social anxiety, by the way. We didn't prioritize telling people to take vitamins and lose weight. We made fun of people for taking alternative doctor prescribed medications that, as far as I can tell, worked as well for them as the vaccine, or at worst, had no impact whatsoever. We told each other to stay away from our friends and family if we really love them.

I would be fine with all of these things if we took a little time to reflect on our responses. Sure, it would be tough to get over, but it's something we could all come together to work on improving.

Only we're not doing that. We haven't learned. Everyone is done. It's fast-track back to fully re-opening. We're not going back. Here it is folks! Here's that new normal we were all talking about! Happy now? You should be happy now! BE. HAPPY.

It felt like the world, our governments, our leaders, our medical community, everyone was so underprepared for a pandemic like this. We're all at fault, so there's no need for me to play the blame game, but for the love of all that's holy and right in the world, can we please come together and get prepared for when the next one will hit?

As of right now, it's clear that SARS-CoV-2 wasn't a world-ender, but what about all of those other crazy, scary viruses? After at least two years, we still don't know where COVID-19 came from, and we probably never will, but we have ideas, right!? It baffles me to no extent that we're not doing everything we can now to ensure that we don't have to go through something like this again.

If this virus was created/stored/researched in a facility, like the one in Wuhan, let's increase safety and security measures to make sure another one does not get out. If this virus came from bats or some other animal, let's trace it and get it eradicated before another virus gets out. If this virus came from illegal food vendors, get rid of the damn illegal food vendors! Maybe these aren't the right steps, but no one is suggesting anything else.

As you can see from the chart above, the delta and omicron variants swept through our country infecting more than ever before. It's still sweeping through other parts of the world. I don't really know a single person who hasn't had it at this point. Unless you are a hermit living in recluse, you've been exposed to COVID. We've all been sharing stories about when we got it and how bad it was. No two stories have been the same. For example, I had it rough, but the rest of my family was either asymptomatic or had light symptoms. One friend of mine, only her kids got it and she didn't. Another friend, all family members got it, but symptoms were mild. Another friend, no one has ever tested positive. An extended family member was hospitalized and almost died.

It sounds terrible to say, but these recent variants were kind of a blessing. Why? Well, because it could have been a shite sight worse. If you look at the below graph, you can see that COVID deaths did not spike as much. In fact, we stayed under the daily death total experienced in our second wave and that's due to these less extreme variants. According to medical experts, these variants mutated to be more infectious and transmissible while sacrificing more severe symptoms and illness. What if they went the other way? Hey, maybe we should have a plan for that.

People are talking about the endemic of this virus and I do believe we're going to reach true endemic within the next year or so. However, going endemic does not mean we get to sit and rest. I'm not just talking about the possibility of the coronavirus mutating for the worse again. If a Japanese town is hit by a massive tsunami caused by the fourth largest earthquake ever recorded, is that town just going to rebuild again at sea level? If your answer is yes, then you're wrong. If your answer is no, then you are also wrong and are completely missing my point.

Some Japanese towns along the coast that were impacted by the 2011 tsunami built bigger walls. Some of them paved bigger, clearer evacuation paths to higher elevations. Some created special plans to help the elderly and disabled get to safe elevations quicker. They all did things a little differently, but what do they all have in common? They did something. They did the research, rolled their sleeves up a bit, and prepared for the next big one. They're ready with better alerting, supplies, and infrastructure. Is it going to stop the next tsunami from causing pure, utter destruction and taking more lives? Absolutely not, but it is going to save more lives. At the end of the day, shouldn't that be our goal with viral pandemics, too?

I don't want to leave you, the reader, on a depressing note. There are people in this world in science and technology working tirelessly to advance our lives. One example is how mRNA vaccine technology has given us an amazing new way to fight diseases. Diseases that have been plaguing our civilization for decades or centuries now, like heart disease, multiple sclerosis, and HIV. Yet, I'd still like to see our government and medical leaders pay more attention to pandemics, especially while we're all still in one so that we don't have to suffer the consequences of a global shutdown again.

The Coronavirus Inevitability

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 15:09:00 +0000

I got the 'rona.

Around noon on Sunday, November 14th, I developed a really bad stuffy nose. So bad that I couldn't breathe through my nose at all; I could only breathe through my mouth. (I became a true mouth-breather.)

Thinking it was just a cold, I did my favorite thing to remedy it and took a bath later in the afternoon. When I got out of the bath, my body was shivering and I felt very cold. I also felt tired. I stayed in bed most of the night, shivering and sweating.

On Monday, I woke up in a pool of my own sweat and felt the same as the night before. However, as the day progressed, my chills got worse and I had to sign off of work and go lay down in bed. I agreed to take a COVID test the next day since this did not seem like a cold anymore. I also lost my sense of smell and taste on this day. My high temperature was 100.2.

Tuesday was more of the same, but slightly worse. Took the test and results came back positive for coronavirus, which by that point was not a surprise. Bethany and the girls, who we took out of school, got tested as well, but the three of them came back negative.

I called my doctor's office and spoke to a nurse about what I should do. The nurse said to just rest and drink lots of fluids like you would for a flu. Only need to go to the emergency room if I had trouble breathing or had feelings of confusion, which I did not. She sounded very relieved over the phone when I told her that I was fully vaccinated and said that it should not be too bad because of that. She advised on taking Tylenol instead of Advil, which seemed to really be more effective. She also gave instructions on how to self-quarantine from my family.

I stayed in my bedroom for most of the day. Bethany fixed up one of our guest rooms with the intention to sleep there. If we were graded on how well we kept me quarantined, we'd get a big fat F. I ate dinner with the family, albeit 10+ feet away and I always wore a mask when not in my bedroom. Additionally, Bethany ended up being uncomfortable in the guest room and came to sleep in our bed anyway. My temperature reached its all-time COVID high of 101.2 that night.

Day 4 is when I actually started to get a little sore throat. Not the worst sore throat I've ever had, or even on the top ten list of worst sore throats I've had. Again, Tylenol helped a lot with that. One improvement was that my nose cleared up and I was able to breathe through it again. My sense of smell/taste was still completely gone.

By Thursday, I was able to work from home again, which was good because we had two team members out for the rest of the week starting that day. So, I was feeling better. Slight chills, but nothing like before. Normal temperature readings. Starting to turn around.

I neglected to mention that earlier in the week on Monday, my long-awaited Nvidia RTX 3080 finally arrived after much delay. But because I had been feeling so bad, I did not have a chance to install it yet. Well, Friday afternoon was the first time I felt strong enough to crack open my computer and get the sucker in there. Upgraded to Windows 11, installed Microsoft Flight Simulator, and I was off to the friendly skies that night. Point is, I was feeling much better.

Fast forward to now. It has been 17 days since my initial symptoms. I have lots of leftover phlegm and coughing in the mornings, but that clears up pretty quick. My smell and taste sense are still pretty shot. I would estimate that I have 10% of my smell/taste back at this point. It has been the most frustrating lingering symptom since I love my food.

To this day, Bethany and the girls have not tested positive and I am constantly scratching my head wondering how that happened. Bethany and Julie are fully vaccinated, so I guess it makes sense for them, but Coral is not vaccinated at all yet and I am surprised she did not catch it from me. This makes me wonder if I caught it from one of them since the science says that you can still transmit COVID to others even though you are vaccinated. I don't know and I guess it's not that important at this point.

So, key takeaways from my experience?

Get vaxxed. I personally recommend getting vaccinated if you are able to. It's not in my nature to ever push something on people, so you're not going to get a big fight out of me if you refuse, especially if you are young and healthy. I get the hesitation... I really do, but I do believe it helped my symptoms be less severe and got me through it quickly.
Take Tylenol for pain. I used Advil a lot at first because it usually breaks my fevers better, but Tylenol did seem to be more effective.
Drink lots of water and electrolytes. Gatorade, Bodyarmor SuperDrink, and Emergen-C were all the non-water fluids that helped me.
Rest. You won't really have the energy to do anything else anyway, so grab a good book, get your tablet or phone, and just lay in bed.
The experience is different for everyone. I spoke to others who had breakthrough cases of COVID and I learned that this thing impacts people differently. Some are knocked out for two weeks, some just have a mild cough, some can't smell or taste for a week, and some can't smell or taste for months.
It's inevitable. I'll talk about this more below, but this is another place where you can take my advice or leave it. My line of thinking right now is we're all going to catch COVID at some point. You've probably heard some people say how this is probably going to be like the flu moving forward and I am definitely finding myself in that camp lately. I am inarguably the most cautious in my family. I am a medically-diagnosed hypochondriac, I got vaccinated as soon as I could, I am strict about masks, and I use hand sanitizer religiously. I still caught it and I have no idea where I caught it or who I caught it from. Listen, I would love for you or the data to prove me wrong, but with the way things are going, I just don't see an end to this. So, prepare yourself, stay healthy, keep practicing good hygiene and you'll get through this.

As we approach the 2-year mark of COVID-19's initial outbreak, the numbers for reported infections and deaths in the U.S. are as follows:

Schools started back up across the country in various forms back in August and September. Mostly, in-person education is back, but with masks, heavier cleaning procedures, and social distancing. Even at lunch for some schools:

At this point, I get e-mails almost everyday regarding positive cases found at my kids' schools or bus routes:

Sporting events are at full capacity, some workplaces are having employees come back to the office, theme parks have re-opened, and concerts and events have returned. Even I went to a sold-out concert back in September:

According to a recent study from Columbia University, 31% of the U.S. population had COVID by the end of 2020. Many people didn't know it. Many had symptoms that were so mild, they thought it was a cold. Many didn't have any symptoms at all. If those are 2020 numbers, imagine what they are now. With delta still floating around, and the new omicron variant, and the other imminent mutations and variants that will evolve, imagine what the numbers will be next year.

I'm not trying to scare you. In fact, I'm trying to do quite the opposite by normalizing this virus. I think it's here to stay. Again, you can take my advice or leave it. I am not a doctor and I'm far from being an expert on this matter at all. I write what I experience and what I see and this is what I see. You are probably going to get COVID, or you already had it. Maybe more than once. It's more than likely going to be okay. It will be better if you are prepared and anticipate it.

The Coronavirus Variant

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Sun, 08 Aug 2021 22:07:00 +0000

This is the third in a multi-part blog series that I am doing for my experience with the novel coronavirus, a.k.a. COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

March and April of 2021 saw a small rise in COVID infections as businesses started to open up more and people ventured out for Easter and Spring Break. All while three vaccines were being administered to the U.S. public as quickly as possible: Pfizer (2 doses; at least 2 weeks apart), Moderna (2 doses; at least 3 weeks apart), and Johnson & Johnson (1 dose). While the thought of having to only endure one shot sounds appealing, the effectiveness of the vaccines vary.

It was tough to schedule a vaccine at first as there was quite the rush of people willing to do so. I can only write about my personal experience with scheduling and say that it was initially rough. The Washington State website for scheduling was not great, and the state-run vaccination centers sprinkled around King County were fully booked, but I was eventually able to make an appointment at a Walgreens Pharmacy 20 miles away from home for the Moderna vaccine. This occurred on April 7, 2021, but when I arrived, I was informed that they had run out of the Moderna vaccine and were instead going to give me Pfizer. This was good news to me as I've heard about less drastic side effects and slightly better effectiveness.

Between this time, Bethany was able to schedule her dose 1 of Pfizer at one of the aforementioned state-run centers since they opened up vaccine reservations to all adults on March 31, 2021. My dose 2 was administered on May 5, 2021, and two weeks later, I was considered fully vaccinated. Side effects were quite mild for me on both doses. With dose 1, I just had a very sore arm that would wake me up at night whenever I rolled over onto it in bed. For dose 2, I ended up working until 5 a.m. the next morning, so I didn't really have time to think about my side effects. When I woke up, I just felt drained and exhausted with a small headache and chills, but those cleared by the third day.

It was around April that I was starting to feel a bit frustrated with my job. We had gotten 10x busier due to the pandemic without seeing 10x the increased pay, time off, or appreciation. While getting to work from home most of the week has its conveniences, I was working 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. 5-days per week and was getting burnt out. Folks were assuming I was available through the whole day. During big streaming events, Microsoft Production Studios found it vital to continue 48 or 72-hour live productions that had us working crazy hours. My work put me in a hotel during the weekend of our big snowstorm here in the Pacific Northwest and I worked over 65 hours that week. The SolarWinds hack back in December had me working over 72 hours one week.

On April 19th, my friend Ricky (who I had worked with at Microsoft and have known since high school/college) reached out asking if I would be open to a new position his company was hiring for. I'm never against shopping yourself around for other options, so I decided to apply with my intention to just get some more interview experience under my belt. What I didn't count on was that I would actually really like all of the team members I interviewed with. Also, the company is growing and there's a lot of potential around it. Finally, they wanted me and expressed a lot of trust in my abilities.

I won't go into more details on the career change, but it happened. If you want to read more about it, I did a separate blog post for that here. I guess to bring the conversation back to COVID, my new boss prefers when we are in the office to work as opposed to the work from home that most companies are still adhering to. I'm not particularly against it, but I am having to readjust to waking up early, getting showered and ready, and commuting to the office. By the time I get back home, I am exhausted. Certainly, part of it is because I am exercising my brain everyday with new things to learn. But last week, I only had to go into the office twice.

And that's because we are seeing infected numbers rise again. Our new current spike in infections is due to three main reasons that I can see:

1) Easing of restrictions. On May 13, 2021, the CDC announced updated guidance that people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 do not need to wear masks or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors. It was the George W. Bush Mission Accomplished update of the COVID world. People got too comfortable. They got lazy. We re-opened too fast. One week, I went to a Mariners game at T-Mobile Park where I had to show my CDC vaccination card, wear a mask while inside the stadium, and sit at least six feet apart from anyone else. The next week, I could sit immediately next to a stranger with no mask at all. On July 27th, the CDC reversed its indoor mask policy saying that fully vaccinated people should wear masks indoors again. Pretty much all places are not enforcing this and allowing customers to choose whether they want to wear a mask or not.

2) The unvaccinated. As of the time I'm writing this, the U.S. is about 50% vaccinated. That's a really disappointing number and it should be much higher. What's strange is I've seen hesitancy on both sides of the political or religious aisle.

3) The variant. In December of 2020, India identified a new variant in the SARS-CoV-2 virus strain that is even more contagious and severe. The CDC states that it is more transmissible than the common cold and the flu. On June 22, 2021, U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci stated that the Delta COVID-19 Variant is the greatest threat to U.S. pandemic response. Shortly after, on July 7th, the Delta Variant became the dominant coronavirus strain in our country.

The good news is that many people are taking notice, and the 7-day average of newly vaccinated is up 11% from last week and 44% over the past two weeks. It is my belief that these are all the people who were not particularly against the vaccine, but might have been against being some of the first to get it. My worry is that there's still a large proportion of the public that are still hesitant to get the vaccine.

Japan and the Olympic Committee decided to go forth with the Summer Olympics after being postponed last year due to the pandemic. It was weird to see "Tokyo 2020" and "2020 Summer Olympics" all over TV, but I know the games brought comfort to some folks. Still, Japan has been having a tough time, as expected. During the middle of the Games, it was reported that Tokyo surpassed their one-day COVID infection record with 5,000 cases for the first time. The Delta Variant is causing 90% of the infections in the capital city.

So now we are seeing some disturbing news about Tokyo or Japan possibly covering up the arrival of a new strain right before the Olympics called the Lambda Variant. This variant was first discovered in Peru in December 2020 and has shown up in over 1,000 cases in the U.S. already. While it currently does not hold as severe of a rating as the Delta Variant, that could change. It certainly won't be the last variant to spread either. The longer we go without masks and without vaccinations, the more likely additional variants will emerge in the future. This is because as coronavirus continues to jump from person to person, with each new infection, it changes a little bit, just like any virus does. If we stay the course, eventually, one or more of these variants will learn how to evade vaccine-induced immunity. And that would almost put us back at square one.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 22:30:00 +0000

Haha, what a lame title!

Anyway, I left Microsoft. That's right. Friday, July 2nd was my last day as an IT Engineer at Microsoft Production Studios after 13.5 years of supporting the facility. Microsoft was my first job right out of the Air Force. It felt like a new chapter in life. Instead, it got turned into its own trilogy. There is no doubt in my heart that I loved that place. I loved it with a passion. I enjoyed being there. I've never been anywhere else longer.

Don't get me wrong... there were bad times. Downright horrible times. Some of those times are the reason I decided to leave, but that's not the only reason why. In fact, there were many reasons why I wanted to. There were also a lot of reasons I did not want to.

I have friends there. Genuine friends that I know I won't see as much anymore. Friends that I know will drift apart from me. That's the first hardest part of leaving.

The work I was a part of there is a close second. Celebrities. Game trailers. Sat hits. Broadcasts and events that were viewed by millions! Production Studios was the perfect place for me to support since movies, TV shows, music, video games, and live streaming are passions of mine.

"Where did you go?"

"Where are you going?"

"What's next?"

Quite frankly, I'm tired of answering these questions. No, really. It's because the answer is always long. If I told you the name of the company I work at now, you probably haven't heard of them. Haha, I sound like an emo kid trying to impress people with my music tastes. But no, seriously.

I now work at ThriftBooks. *a single party horn and party popper go off* You see, why do I bother?

They're an e-commerce company that sells new and used books. They also sell Blu-ray and DVDs, music albums, and video games. Kind of like how Amazon started, but they're independent. Well, I guess Amazon was independent at one time, too, but you know what I mean. According to the ThriftBooks About page, "today we are the world's largest online independent used book seller, operating with state-of-the-art automation and advanced analytics in a safety-first environment."

Buncha nerds, I tell ya. So, they aren't exactly a small company, but they aren't a huge one like Microsoft either. However, they are growing. I know they are growing because the day I started, a bunch of other new people started, too. Since then, more people have started. There's potential here and I don't mean it in the sense that I will have more opportunities ahead of me to move up the ladder. Rather, I'll be supporting IT for a company during a time of proven growth. I've never done that before. It's exciting, stressful, and intense. My team has already put a lot of trust and faith in me, and I want to impress them.

Books and reading are the heart and soul of this company. You can tell just by walking around the corporate office and speaking with some of the employees. No one has asked me what my favorite books are yet. If they did, I'm not sure what to tell them. I don't really read. I mean, I read a ton everyday, but not books. It just usually comes in the form of online news, e-mails, social media, and Reddit. When I do read books, it's usually manga or comics. ThriftBooks sells those, too, but I can already see the judging faces looking back at me if I were to tell them that manga is all I read.

One of the company perks is free books delivered straight to your home. I can only imagine how giddy a proper bookworm would be hearing about such a benefit. That would be like me never having to pay for a video game ever again. Still, used books are incredibly cheap on ThriftBooks and the overall glowing reviews are a testament to how careful they are with their quality process. I was browsing r/books on Reddit the other day and saw tons of positive comments for ThriftBooks.

Want one of the Harry Potter books? 4 bucks for a hardcover. Want 2019's New York Times bestseller Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips? 5 bucks. How do more people not already know about this company?

Anyway, not trying to sell you on it, but I am excited to see where they take me. The IT team has already made me feel welcome and I look forward to the many challenges and support opportunities that lie ahead.

R.I.P. Luna

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Sun, 16 May 2021 22:09:00 +0000

Our older cat, Luna, was humanely euthanized on Friday afternoon. I had first noticed that she wasn't eating her food very much. We did our best to entice her with treats and other good stuff. She tried her best to eat, but she just couldn't do it.

We made a vet appointment earlier in the week and the veterinarian could immediately feel a lump on her intestines. We still had testing done to make sure that it was indeed a cancerous mass, and that came back positive. Pretty much untreatable. We asked the vet what they would do. They said they would have her put to sleep the next day.

Luna was our good kitty. Out of our two cats, she was more friendly, tolerant, and loving. When we introduced her to Chibi, there was some initial tension, but she grew to tolerate her, too. She did really well with Chip, our new bunny addition to our family. I wish I could have seen them get more comfortable with each other and possibly cuddle in the winter together.

Luna is our family's first major pet loss. Losing Pepper back in 2012 was very hard, but she was more of my cat with my parents. Luna has been an affectionate part of our family since Julie was two years old. I remember very clearly meeting her for the first time at the animal shelter and watching how she didn't care how much Julie bothered her. Later, when Coral was a baby, she would sometimes pull Luna's hair or unintentionally be less than gentle. Luna would not do a thing.

Luna was humanely euthanized on Friday, May 14, 2021. It was one of the hardest goodbyes for our whole family. Due to COVID, only one family member could be in the room with her at the vet. We decided that Bethany should be the one to go and make sure that she was the last thing Luna saw before the light left her eyes.

You were one of the best, Luna. I choose to believe that I will see you again. I cannot wait to pet you while you are laying on my chest in bed again. Rest in peace, my baby.

The Coronavirus Vaccine

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 19:57:00 +0000

"I hope the next time I write a personal entry on my blog, it will be to celebrate the ending of the coronavirus pandemic."

The quote above is the last sentence to my previous blog post about this. I would suggest you read it before continuing through this post, which is essentially a Part II of our experience with the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Let's see, where did I leave off? Well, last I wrote to you, we were in the thick of things. However, we had not seen the worst of it yet. Back on July 22, 2020, we had about 4,000,000 total number of reported cases of coronavirus, and just over 142,000 deaths. Here are our current number as of February 11th, 2021:

As you can see, the numbers rose quite dramatically towards the end of the year. If I'm following the news correctly, there are two main reasons for the increase we observed. For one, the virus spread to regions of the country where the pandemic was not taken quite as seriously. Each state had different responses to the virus. The more lenient states saw infection rates rise dramatically as 2020 went on since the infection seemed to start on the coasts and worked inwards. For example, as of February 10th, 2021, North Dakota has the highest rate of infection with 12,887 per 100,000 population out of a total population of 762,062 residents. I have a few sets of friends living in N.D. and they have all said that the state has no restrictions. There were closures when the pandemic first started, but since then, schools have remained open, businesses are back in operation, and masks are encouraged, but not required.

That's not to say that states with stricter COVID guidelines haven't been struggling. California has had one of the strongest responses to the virus, but still saw hospitalization numbers rise to such high rates that the availability of intensive care units in the sunshine state hit 0%.

Which brings me to the second reason why we saw increased numbers: the holidays. By the time Thanksgiving came around, everyone was tired of being stuck at home and not seeing their family. People relaxed and saw people outside of their bubbles for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's hard not to want to see your family after this prolonged event. I get it. I won't shame a single person who chose to risk it. This is also why we are starting to see the numbers drop.

Another reason we are seeing numbers drop is because we are finally getting some vaccines rolled out. I say "finally," but realistically, these things came out fast. Less than one year. Science, in all its uncertainty and glory, made a COVID vaccine in less than a year. TWO vaccines, mind you! Pfizer-BioNTech's and Moderna's vaccines are both already getting injected into the older and more vulnerable Americans all over the country. And there are about a half dozen more vaccines from all around the world that are being cleared by regulators for emergency use. Just for context, it usually takes 5-10 years for companies to develop a vaccine.

As I mentioned, the vaccine is not available to everyone yet. Our state of Washington is distributing the vaccines through a tier-phased system. Right now, high-risk healthcare workers, first responders, long-term care facility residents, and all people 65 years or older are eligible. My parents are getting their second shot tomorrow (the Pfizer vaccine is 2-dose at least 21 days apart). The next tier, which will likely start in spring 2021, will cover 50 years or older. Then 16 years or older with two or more co-morbidities or underlying conditions. Then under 50 years who work in certain congregate settings. By fall, it is expected that everyone else should then be able to get the vaccine.

The story is not over, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We trudge on with life. My end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 was not great. In fact, I would say it was downright miserable. Another big event that did not get much airtime from the news and media was a recent vulnerability found in a popular SolarWinds product. COVID, the Presidential election, and a protest at our nation's capital stole the headlines from this story. Yet, nearly every article you read about this network security incident likens it to a virtual version of the attack on Pearl Harbor. How fitting it is that my grandfather was present and survived the bombing in 1941. I will survive this, too.

Coral has returned to school in a hybrid model of virtual and in-person learning. For the first half of the school day, she attends Zoom classes with her teacher. After lunch, she gets on a bus and goes to her third grade class where she learns with eight of her fellow classmates. Face masks, daily health checks, social distancing, and increased cleaning measures are all in effect at the school. So far, only K-3 have returned to this hybrid model, but I assume the other grades will be following suit, shortly. Parents have the option to send their kids to this hybrid model, or to stick with only online learning.

So, that means Julie is still only doing school from home, but she prefers it. When she's not drawing, writing stories, listening to Porter Robinson, or watching RWBY, she's watching me playthrough Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Nintendo Switch for the first time. As a non-Zelda fan, I have to say that this game has become one of my favorites of all-time. Since King County is in Phase 2 of re-opening, Julie and Coral have been able to go back to circus class. Restaurants have started to re-open with 25% seating capacity limits.

Perhaps the most exciting news has been an addition to our family. Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Brownie, or just Chip for short, joined the household a few weeks ago and has brought a lot of joy to the family. He is a young Polish breed rabbit that we got from a 4H rabbit breeder in Oregon. At 2 lbs., he'll stop growing and remain a cute chocolate brown fluff ball of joy. We already love him so much.

The girls start mid-winter break this week. While I have some work to do Monday morning, I will be joining them by also taking some vacation. Not that we have big plans or anything since we just got over a big snowstorm and places are still re-opening, but that's where everything currently stands. At this point, let's hope this nightmare is completely done by fall/winter. Take care.

The Coronavirus Pandemic

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 16:27:00 +0000

I haven't really updated this blog much with personal life because a lot of that has moved on in the forms of Twitch streams and YouTube videos. However, I wanted to take a little time to talk about what's going on with my life, my family's life, and my perception of the world during these strange times.

The coronavirus, or COVID-19, was first identified and reported in December of 2019 in Wuhan, China. I remember the initial reports were very similar to other recent pathogens like swine flu and bird flu; both of which, while serious, were not major or life-altering. So, I didn't worry too much through the month and into January.

We had a Disneyland California trip booked for the week of February 16th, at which time the virus was getting pretty serious. Our home state of Washington reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19 on January 21, 2020. Even then, one singular person having the virus in the country was serious, but no precautions were being taken by the general public at the time because it was thought that it could be contained. As our Disney trip loomed closer, I made the decision to just do what Disney does. If they close the parks, then we won't go. If they make everyone wear masks, we'll wear masks.

But even as the World Health Organization increased the severity of COVID-19 to a "Global Health Emergency" on January 31st, there were only a handful of confirmed cases in the U.S. We went to Disneyland in February with most of the family ignorant of the rapidly spreading virus. We took very minor precautions like avoiding people with obvious signs of illness, not touching hard surfaces like railings and walls, and using lots of hand sanitizer. Had we known then what we know now, we likely would have cancelled our trip. Thankfully, we made it through unscathed and had an absolutely magical time. Unfortunately, it was the last time things would feel normal.

We started to see closures outside of the originating country of China. Japan announced that it would close all of its schools on February 27th. I half-joked on Discord that we should all take a page from Japan and close down everything. Had we actually done this, I wonder how many lives this would have saved? People started to panic-buy and hoard. The most popular was toilet paper, but hand sanitizer, face masks, and cleaning product shelves were all bare for a couple weeks. On February 29th, WA state reported the first U.S. death from coronavirus.

On March 4th, Microsoft sent an e-mail to all of their employees letting us know that we are to work from home through March 25th. A half-marathon I was supposed to run on March 7th cancelled and our local comic con, Emerald City Comicon, announced its postponement and ultimate cancellation. Announced on March 6th, the University of Washington said that they would move all classes to online courses during the following week. The rest of the world was also shutting down. The country of Italy got hit hard and announced a full-scale lockdown on March 9th. On March 11th, only a few weeks after our return from Disney, the WHO officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

I wish I could say that that's where we are now, but that honestly feels like a year ago. Washington state governor Jay Inslee announced on March 12th that all schools in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties were to close until at least April 24th. 12-year-old Julie was thrilled; 7-year-old Coral was not thrilled. There were tears. On this same day, Disney announced that it would be closing Disneyland and Disney World.

Shortly after this time, the country saw small signs of coming together. "We are all in this together" was a slogan you would hear from multiple companies. Some even offered free or enhanced services. One example that helped me out a lot was Comcast/Xfinity eliminating data caps for a couple months. T-Mobile also got rid of their 4GB limit of 4G/LTE for a little bit. Governor Inslee closed restaurants, bars, gyms, theaters, and pretty much every other non-essential retail store on March 15th, but allowed for food take-out and delivery still. Home-cooked meals have been great, but I think everyone is tired of it and are choosing to order food more often.

We started to see the stock market and financial impact from the pandemic around this time. The Dow lost more than 31% from its all-time high and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq dropped more than 29% below their records. It wasn't looking great for a little bit, but at the time of writing this, we've recovered quite a bit. Unemployment rates skyrocketed though and while I do not personally know of anyone directly suffering from these times, I am aware that there are a lot of people out there who are.

"Stand at least 6 feet apart" became another common site. Social distancing is commonplace now when you are out shopping, waiting in any type of line, or chatting with people who are not your family members. There are markings on the floor pretty much everywhere to remind you. Here's the line at Dick's Drive-In one night:

March 16th saw San Francisco order its residents to perform mandatory lockdowns; unless you were an essential employee, you could only leave your house to get groceries, medicine, or visit your doctor. A few days later, the whole state of California ordered a lockdown, with New York and Illinois following suit. WA state locked down on March 23, 2020. It sounds like a big deal, but at the time, no one was really going out anywhere anyway in fear of the virus.

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo were postponed to Summer 2021 due to the pandemic. India's 1.3 billion people were placed under lockdown. Things that were closed until April moved to May, which moved to June and eventually were TBD. This was probably the most disheartening part because now there didn't seem to be an end.

School teachers had moved most of the curriculum to online learning, but all school districts took different approaches. Some had live online classes through software like Zoom and Teams, while others simply assigned work to complete at home through apps like Google Classroom or Seesaw. Honestly, I do not know how much education kids got out of this change, but no one was really prepared for this. It was a pain to have to work and try and help my kids with their work, too. I'll just say that this summer has been very welcome in our house. As the months have gone on, we've started to see places slowly re-open, but there is also another wave that has started.

I'm not going to spend too much time talking about the controversy or the politics that have emerged from this pandemic, nor the social injustice events that have sparked many peaceful protests as well as dangerous riots in the world. As with anything, you have people who take the pandemic too seriously, and you have people who are completely careless. I can only tell you what my family is doing and what our lives are like right now.

Microsoft's latest notice to employees in the U.S. is to not come back into work until October, but at the rate this thing is going, I would not be surprised if it gets extended. My team is considered "business-essential," to a certain extent, so we're busier than ever. As Microsoft's in-person events are being virtualized due to the pandemic, my facility has been tasked with distribution of these events causing a much greater workload than ever. It is a blessing and a curse at the same time. It's a blessing in that I have a well-paying job that is pretty secure. It's a curse because while most of Microsoft is working from home on their jobs unimpaired, I'm swamped like never before.

Now, that said, I can do about 90% of my job remotely from home and I am being encouraged to do so. On average, I go into work once per week. I go in more often when there is a big event like Build, Inspire, and Ready. I wish I could say I love working from home. Don't get me wrong, I definitely prefer it, but I don't love it. My colleagues and I agree that it's nice to get a little extra sleep in the morning and not have to deal with traffic. However, since we are busier and technically always home, we're getting called upon way more often. Where I would usually work 9-5, there are a lot of days where I feel like I am working 7-7. It's this "always online" mentality that I think a lot of the tech companies have right now. I long for the weekends when I feel like I have more of an opportunity to get out and go for a walk, or just turn off my phone for a couple hours. I always thought I'd have more time to workout if I worked from home, but my increased work schedule doesn't really allow for that. Maybe I'm just making excuses; I should do more.

Bethany's world changed less drastically, but her new normal has its pros and cons. She hates the online schooling program. She hates not being able to go shopping as much, but that has gotten slightly better recently. She likes me being home more. We watch a lot of movies, shows, or YouTube videos in the evening. We also play Minecraft together.

Juliana will be a teenager later this year and we're already seeing signs of attitude changes. She loves to chill in her room, listen to music, and draw. When she's not doing that, she's downstairs playing Animal Crossing or Minecraft. Speaking of, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been an absolute joy. For a long time, it was one of those games I played everyday that just made me feel so content. Anyway, Julie is a homebody, so this pandemic has been pretty good for her, I think.

As I mentioned earlier, Coral was sad about not being able to go to school when the pandemic first hit. She's still at that age where school is fun even though she is a little behind on her math skills. We enrolled her in a math tutoring service before the pandemic hit, so that's been an interesting change, too. They went from in-person sessions, to virtual online sessions, and now back to in-person sessions, but limited to three days per week with mask. Coral misses swimming and playgrounds the most. I have to say that her attitude through all this has been pretty good. We celebrated her eighth birthday in May. Like most people who have had to celebrate their birthday during this pandemic, she didn't get to have a party, except for a small gathering of family members.

So, what's the outlook at this point? Well, personally, I don't see this ending soon. Scientists and doctors seem to be saying the same thing. The U.S. as a whole was too little too late to respond to this highly contagious virus, and now they are restless. Restless because of social injustice. Restless because of being kept at home for so long. Restless because of change. Whether we like it or not, this is the world we live in now.

I'm encouraged by our current level of technology and innovation. Pharmaceutical companies all over the world are racing for a vaccine. Some are even already in Phase 3 of testing. While we likely won't see one widely available for another year or two, a vaccine is the best hope we have to ending this nightmare. Or maybe masks will work? There have been conflicting studies done on the effectiveness of face masks, but if we all wear them often and properly, maybe we could stop coronavirus?

But things won't ever go back to normal. Or maybe they will in a couple decades. I suspect that face masks will be more commonplace, along with social distancing, hand sanitizer, and plexiglass. Our state is slowly re-opening retail and small businesses. Bethany and I sat down and ate at a restaurant for the first time last week. It's nice to have some of these things back.

If for some reason you have found this post decades or maybe even centuries from now, know that it feels like we are in the thick of it right now. No one knows when this will be over and it's taking a small toll on the general public's mental state. Maybe you're reading this at a time when a new pandemic is happening. In which case, my advice to you would be to listen to the science, use common sense, and don't give up hope.

I hope the next time I write a personal entry on my blog, it will be to celebrate the ending of the coronavirus pandemic.

Top Ten Movies of the 2010s

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:30:00 +0000

Here is my "Top Ten Movies of the Decade" list. As we start the roarin' '20s, I'd like to look back at some of the films that I hold fondly and will continue to watch for years to come. I had a really hard time making this list. There is no way that I could have seen all of the movies released this decade, so this list only includes what I have seen between 2010 and 2019. This is only my opinion. If you don't like my list, go do your own.

#Runner-up The Art of Flight (2011) - I was obsessed with this snowboarding documentary when it came out in 2011. Since it wasn't very accessible, I practically forced all of my local friends and family to come over and watch this amazing film with me. It was a milestone in sports filmmaking, in my opinion. Using RED cameras with cranes up on the sides of mountains paved the way for what is possible today in sports media. The shots of these snowboarders are gorgeous. It still looks great, even today. Plus, the soundtrack is one of the best of all-time!

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#10 What If (2013) - This one will be a surprise to most people, but this little movie has found a special place in my heart. It was the first post-Harry Potter thing that I watched Daniel Radcliffe do and I thought he freakin' killed it. His back-and-forth with co-star Zoe Kazan is so quick and filled with humor. I'm finding that rom-coms with really unique storylines can do a lot for me and this is certainly one of those. What I love about it is it's unconventional ending. Most rom-coms end on this really big chasing the girl at the end moment and What If attempts to break those stereotypes. Also, Adam Driver (pre-Star Wars) plays Daniel Radcliffe's best friend and is absolutely hilarious in this movie.

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#9 The Cabin in the Woods (2011) - Usually, you can miss me with that horror stuff, but Cabin in the Woods is different. What starts out as a very trope-y horror flick quickly turns into a mystery and then a full-blown action movie. The second half of this movie is just crazy and it was one of the most fun times I had in a movie theater in the last decade. I've heard complaints from people who say it's not scary, but then I remind them about the first time they viewed the scene where one of the characters has to make out with a taxidermized wolf head and how tense it was. Sure, the movie isn't always trying to scare you, but it wasn't meant to fit into the horror mold that we are all used to.

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#8 Columbus (2017) - Columbus is the 2010's Lost in Translation for me. I've seen it quite a few times now and enjoy every single part about it. Haley Lu Richardson and John Cho are amazing together in this movie that involves architecture, parents, life, and more. I'm really excited to see how well director Kogonada does with his next feature, After Yang.

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#7 Whiplash (2014) - Writer and director Damien Chazelle's career has skyrocketed (almost, literally) after his debut feature-length film won the Audience Award and the Grand Jury prize at Sundance. It then went on to nab three Academy Awards, a Golden Globe, and three BAFTAs. I think Whiplash is one of the smartest movies we got to watch in the 2010s. The way it all comes together at the end is a remarkable achievement and I think we will be watching Chazelle movies for the rest of our lives.

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#6 Midnight in Paris (2011) - There are few movies that I would describe as magical. Midnight in Paris is one of those movies. It's a journey you don't expect to go on just as much as the main character. Though he has a controversial personal life, there is no doubt that Woody Allen is a talented writer and director. This is some of his best work.

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#5 The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) - It's not often that you get to watch a movie based on a novel that is written and directed by the actual author. What you get is the purest of page-to-screen translations. Not only that, but the movie is incredibly well-crafted and well-acted. It also tackles an uncomfortable subject that doesn't get a lot of screen-time in most Hollywood films.

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#4 Drive (2011) - About half-way through my first viewing of Drive, I knew that I was watching one of my favorite films. Director Nicolas Winding Refn fused together a heist action film with indie arthouse and made it work so well. The acting caliber is simply amazing. I mean, just look at this: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac, Christina Hendrick, Ron Perlman. That's insane. Plus, it has one of the best soundtracks of the decade.

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#3 Like Crazy (2011) - My wife claims that I don't cry much. It's true. I don't know why. However, I balled in the theater when I went to see Like Crazy. This is one of those movies that I was able to relate to so much on a personal level. In the movie, two lovers are forced to live a long-distance relationship that spans continents. It's something that Wifey and I had to do while I was in the military stationed in Germany and we were engaged. It was hard. Probably the hardest year of my life. Writer and director Drake Doremus was able to capture the feelings and frustrations with it so accurately in the movie because he went through something similar, too. What's also amazing about the film is that it was shot with a budget of $250k and Canon 7D DSLR cameras, yet it is way more authentic than anything big blockbusters could ever deliver.

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#2 Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011) - Here is a movie that my wife and I already really enjoyed, and one that has grown on us even more over the years. It's a classic in my book and an underrated film that I promote to people quite often. It is what I would consider a smart comedy instead of your typical goofy or off-the-wall comedy. I think people were expecting Steve Carell's 40 Year Old Virgin, but this is actually a lot more intelligent than that. Ryan Gosling is hilarious in this movie and I wish he would do more stuff like this.

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Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for...

#1 - Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (2010) - Sike!

#1 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) - If you are my friend, you know that I am obsessed with this movie forever and always. Scott Pilgrim is not only the most accurate graphic novel-to-film adaptation Hollywood has ever seen, but it broke new ground for how a movie can be edited. The actors are all incredible grabs, the lines are funny, the music is amazing, and the fight scenes are outstanding. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World has found a place on my coveted Top 10 List of All-Time at #5 (behind Oldboy, The Matrix, Lost in Translation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in order from top to bottom).

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Other Runners-up: Inception, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The King's Speech, Black Swan, Bridesmaids, The Artist, Attack the Block, Moonrise Kingdom, Frozen, Tangled, Upstream Color, Edge of Tomorrow, Birdman, Mad Max: Fury Road, What We Do in Shadows, It Follows, Sing Street, Sucker Punch, Kimi no na wa, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Her, Blade Runner 2049, The Goldfinch.

So, there you have it. Another decade has passed. An interesting thing you might have noticed about my list, like I did, was that most of the films come from the first half of the 2010s. Specifically, 2011 was a phenomenal year in film, imo, and we haven't had anything like it since! Part of me wants to say that it's just me; that my tastes have changed, or that movies don't interest me as much as they once did. But I don't think that's true. I honestly believe that, generally speaking, movies have gotten worse over the last few years. TV and gaming have really stepped up their games in the entertainment industry. I'm hoping to be proved wrong, but I guess we'll see.

Past lists:
Top 10 Movies of the 2000s

Top 50 Singles of 2019

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 03:20:00 +0000

This page can take a little bit to load. OR, you can just check out all of the songs on my convenient Spotify playlist.

This was another great year for music! I noticed that there are lots of talented ladies on my list this year, which I love. Instead of explanations on why each of these songs are worthy of your ear-holes, I like to just let the music speak for itself. Enjoy.

50. Rina Sawayama - "STFU!"

49. Chance the Rapper feat. Death Cab For Cutie - "Do You Remember"

48. Asagraum - "Abomination's Altar"

47. dreamcatchr - "Petting Zoo"

46. Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus, Mason Ramsey, Young Thug - "Old Town Road (Remix)"

45. Fever Ray - "I'm Not Done (Still Not Done Mix)"

44. Keyboard Kid feat. Big Baby Scumbag - "Ashy to Classy"

43. pronoun - "stay"

42. Lim Kim - "YELLOW"

41. Charly Bliss - "Capacity"

40. Trippie Redd feat. DaBaby - "Death"

39. Grimes & i_o - "Violence"

38. Hayley Kiyoko - "I Wish"

37. Rico Nasty - "Roof"

36. Caribou - "You and I"

35. Red Hearse - "Half Love"

34. Squid - "The Cleaner"

33. The National - "Light Years"

32. Big Freedia feat. Icona Pop - "Louder"

31. PewDiePie feat. Party in Backyard - "Mine All Day"

30. The Weeknd - "Heartless"

29. Katy Perry - "Harleys in Hawaii"

28. DJ Khalil feat. Denzel Curry, YBN Cordae, Swavay, Trevor Rich - "Elevate"

27. Kesha - "My Own Dance"

26. Kitten - "ME"

25. 21 Savage - "Immortal"

24. Billie Eilish - "bad guy"

23. Teebs feat. Panda Bear - "Studie"

22. Ludwig Goransson - "HammerTime"

21. Lulileela - "Dive"

20. Weyes Blood - "Movies"

19. clipping. - "Nothing is Safe"

18. Grimes - "4 Æm"

17. A$AP Rocky - "Babushka Boi"

16. PewDiePie feat. Roomie, Boyinaband - "Congratulations"

15. Rosalía & J Balvin feat. El Guincho - "Con Altura"

14. Brittany Howard - "Stay High"

13. A$AP Ferg feat. MadeinTYO - "WAM"

12. The Chemical Brothers - "We've Got to Try"

11. Octavian feat. Skepta, Michael Phantom - "Bet"

10. The Big Moon - "Your Light"

9. Post Malone & Swae Lee - "Sunflower"

8. Lizzo - "Cuz I Love You"

7. Perfume Genius - "Pop Song"

6. Tame Impala - "Patience"

5. A$AP Ferg - "Floor Seats"

4. Lizzo feat. Missy Elliott - "Tempo"

3. Ashnikko - "Hi, It's Me"

2. Billie Eilish - "when the party's over"

1. Poppy - "Voicemail"

Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2019

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 19:51:00 +0000

Happy New Year. Here is my "Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2019" list. This list includes movies that are most likely getting wide releases and will be possible blockbusters. This is only my opinion.

#10 Doctor Sleep - "A sequel to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining." I was floored when I first heard that this was actually happening. Ewan McGregor is to star as Danny, an adult version of the boy with odd powers that we met about 40 years ago. The film will apparently following Stephen King's sequel novel while also staying true to Kubrick's 1980 masterpiece. I have doubts on how well this will be pulled off, but there is some hope with Mike Flanagan directing. His Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House was widely viewed as a success, so maybe he can do this right.
Release date: November 8, 2019
Trailer: Not yet

#9 Where'd You Go, Bernadette - The novel Where'd You Go, Bernadette spent a year on the New York Times bestseller list and now we're getting a feature film. The movie is about an agoraphobic former architect who disappears before a family trip to Antarctica. This movie is set apart for a few different reasons. One, it star the wonderfully talented Cate Blanchett. Two, Richard Linklater is directing this one, whose Before... series is a must-see for any cinephile. Three, it takes place in Seattle!
Release date: August 16, 2019
Trailer:

#8 Glass - It's hard to be excited about this one. Unbreakable continues to be my favorite M. Night Shyamalan movie. Split was an okay movie, but connected to Unbreakable at the end, which really pumped me up. Glass promises to be the third film in the Unbreakable trilogy. However, we all know that Shyamalan's recent track record isn't the greatest. Here's to hoping that this brings him back around as one of the most popular directors.
Release date: January 18, 2019
Trailer:

#7 Alita: Battle Angel - Alita is based on the Japanese manga Gunnm about a deactivated female cyborg trying to remember her past. This film feature will be a movie nearly 20 years in the making. Filmmaker James Cameron bought the rights to Alita back in the late '90s and always wanted to make a live-action film version. Then Avatar happened. The success of Avatar took Cameron away to focus on creating sequels. So, director Robert Rodriguez came on board to helm the film with Cameron and Jon Landau producing. While Robert Rodriguez has been hit or miss for me, I'm hoping this one will be more on the hit side.
Release date: February 14, 2019
Trailer:

#6 Knives Out - Rian Johnson was easily in my top three favorite current directors a couple years back. Brick continues to be one of my favorite films of all-time and Looper is a blockbuster of a trip if I have ever seen one. Unfortunately, I think he got overzealous while penning Star Wars: Episode VIII. I appreciate what he was trying to do, which was to do the unexpected. I think that's fine in an original world, but perhaps not the Star Wars universe where there are already a set of rules. That's why I am looking forward to Knives Out; an original film with the simple premise of being essentially a family murder mystery party.
Release date: November 27, 2019
Trailer: Not yet

#5 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Quentin Tarantino cannot make a bad movie anymore. Everything he has done in the last decade has been great. This looks like it will continue as he directs an all-star cast of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Dakota Fanning, Timothy Olyphant, Al Pacino, and Kurt Russell, among others. The movie follows a faded television actor and his stunt double who strive to achieve fame and success in the film industry during the final years of Hollywood's Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles.
Release date: July 26, 2019
Trailer: Not yet

#4 Avengers: Endgame - Look, the Marvel films will never be viewed as masterpieces in the art form, but you cannot deny the intensity and enormity of the story they have built after 21 films featuring the comic book heroes. Infinity War crushed out hopes by not just featuring an actual threat, but rather a villain who actually succeeds in his quest to "help" the world. I look forward to seeing how they decide to fix this because you just know that the good guys are going to come out on top in the end. Even if that means losing a hero or two along the way (*cough* Iron Man *cough*).
Release date: April 26, 2019
Trailer:

#3 Star Wars: Episode IX - As I mentioned, I was not a fan of Rian Johnson's Episode VIII - The Last Jedi. His film definitely polarized the Star Wars fan community. I think Disney/Lucasfilm knew this, which is why they never reached out to Johnson to direct episode IX, and after not being able to work out creative differences with Colin Trevorrow, invited back The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams to conclude this trilogy. This is a great choice, in my opinion, since The Force Awakens was so much fun and introduced us to so many new things in the Star Wars universe.
Release date: December 20, 2019
Trailer: Not yet

#2 Frozen II - There is no doubt that 2013's Frozen was a huge hit for Disney Animation. Frozen mania hit hard and toys and merchandise where sold out everywhere right after the movie came out. While there have been some mediocre animated shorts to hold us over, it feels like it has been forever since we've been invited back to the kingdom of Arendelle. Frozen 2 looks like it will build on the story of Elsa and her powers.
Release date: November 22, 2019
Trailer: Not yet

Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for...

#1 - A Madea Family Funeral - Sike!

#1 The Goldfinch - Irish director John Crowley has managed to impress me with two of his directorial works, Brooklyn and Boy A. Now he takes on The Goldfinch, whose screenplay is written by Academy Award nominated writer Peter Straughan. Based on the 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch tells the coming-of-age story of a boy named Theo who lost his mother to a terrorist attack while visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The movie stars Ansel Elgort, Nicole Kidman, Sarah Paulson, Jeffrey Wright, and Luke Wilson to name a few. It also has cinematographer Roger Deakins behind the camera, so it is sure to be pleasing on the eyes. This might not be a movie for everyone, but it is a movie for Cameron.
Release date: September 13, 2019
Trailer: Not yet

Past lists:
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006

Top 50 Singles of 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 19:55:00 +0000

This page can take a little bit to load. OR, you can just check out all of the songs on my convenient Spotify playlist.

This was another great year for music. I would say that song was the second best medium of entertainment this year, right behind video games. Instead of explanations on why each of these songs are worthy of your ear-holes, I like to just let the music speak for itself. Enjoy.

50. U.S. Girls - "Rosebud"

49. Remo Drive - "Heartstrings"

48. PewDiePie - "Bitch Lasagna"

47. blackwave. - "Whasgood?!"

46. Beach House - "Dive"

45. Dux feat. Stan Taylor - "Lady of the Night"

44. Snail Mail - "Heat Wave"

43. Keys N Krates feat. Tory Lanez - "Music To My Ears"

42. Lil Wayne feat. Gucci Mane - "In This House"

41. Flowertruck - "Enough for Now"

40. Jon Hopkins - "Emerald Rush - Edit"

39. Breadwinner - "Everything Everything"

38. Poppy feat. Grimes - "Play Destroy"

37. Tove Styrke - "Say My Name"

36. Twenty One Pilots - "Pet Cheetah"

35. Poppy - "Metal"

34. Diplo feat. Lil Yachty and Santigold - "Worry No More (Keys N Krates Remix)"

33. Lil Dicky feat. Chris Brown - "Freaky Friday"

32. PieDiePie and Party in Backyard - "Hej Monika (Remix)"

31. Beach House - "Lemon Glow"

30. Superorganism - "Everybody Wants To Be Famous"

29. Poppy - "In a Minute"

28. Keys N Krates feat. Ambre Perkins - "Glitter"

27. Drake feat. Michael Jackson - "Don't Matter To Me"

26. JPEGMAFIA & Kenny Beats - "Puff Daddy"

25. BLV - "Badunkadunk"

24. Phum Viphurit - "Lover Boy"

23. Lucie,Too - "Lucky"

22. 88rising feat. Joji, Rich Brian, Higher Brothers, AUGUST 08 - "Midsummer Madness"

21. Auralnauts - "Tree World (We Go Hard)"

20. BLACKPINK - "DDU-DU DDU-DU"

19. Bad Lip Reading - "It's Not a Moon"

18. Death Cab for Cutie - "I Dreamt We Spoke Again"

17. Twenty One Pilots - "My Blood"

16. Rich Brian - "watch out!"

15. A.A.L. (Against All Logic) - "Some Kind of Game"

14. Death Cab for Cutie - "Autumn Love"

13. N.E.R.D. feat. Rihanna - "Lemon (Drake Remix)"

12. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - "きみのみかた"

11. Bazzi - "Mine"

10. JID w/ J. Cole - "Off Deez"

9. L'Orchestra Cinematique - "Pure Imagination"

8. Poppy - "Chic Chick"

7. Born Dirty with Anna Lunoe - "Badass"

6. Juyen Sebulba - "Resist"

5. Twenty One Pilots - "Levitate"

4. Inner State 81 - "Let Me Get Close to You"

3. Big Freedia feat. Erica Falls - "3rd Ward Bounce"

2. Drake - "Nice For What"

1. ZHU & Tame Impala - "My Life"

Other Best and Worst of 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 01:11:00 +0000

With the Oscars nominations out today, I figured now would be a good time to list out all of my other favorite things from 2017.

Best Actor: Michael Stuhlbarg in The Shape of Water, Call Me By Your Name, and The Post
Runners-up: Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project, Murder on the Orient Express, and Death Note

Thoughts: Chances are you've seen Stuhlbarg's work before. Maybe in A Serious Man, Hugo, Men in Black 3, Lincoln, Hitchcock, Blue Jasmine, Steve Jobs, Arrival, Doctor Strange, Boardwalk Empire... okay, I'll stop. Stuhlbarg appeared in three Oscar nominated films this past year, so the man deserves some gosh darn respect. I feel like it is only a matter of time before we see this guy hit A-list status.

Best Actress: Sally Hawkins in The Shape of Water and Paddington 2
Runner-up: Bria Vinaite in The Florida Project
Thoughts: What an incredibly strong year for women! Some of the best movies of the year star women and tell their stories. Just look at Lady Bird, Three Billboards, The Florida Project, and The Shape of Water. Sally Hawkins had my favorite performance out of all female actors this year for her role in The Shape of Water. She portrayed her character with such natural talent that I could have sword she was a mute actress to begin with. But let's not forget that she also plays the mother in Paddington and this year's sequel to the film was just a joyous as the first.

Best Breakthrough Performance: Lakeith Stanfield in Get Out, War Machine, Crown Heights, and Death Note
Runners-up: Barry Keoghan for The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Dunkirk, Brooklynn Prince for The Florida Project, Beanie Feldstein in Lady Bird, Vicky Krieps for Phantom Thread
Thoughts: Get Out is one of my favorite films of the year, but I actually don't care too much for the performance from the main star, Daniel Kaluuya. It could be poor directing of him, but I haven't been impressed in any of the past films or series I've seen him in like Sicario, Kick-Ass 2, and even Black Mirror. He's a very monotone type of actor. Now, that's not to say that Get Out doesn't have some spectacular supporting performance, especially from Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, and Lakeith Stanfield. Stanfield, in particular, deserves a lot of praise in my opinion. His character transformation in the film from beginning to middle was incredible. Not only that, but what a year has this guy had? In 2017 alone, he was in eight movies, series, and shorts. If I had to bank on any actor succeeding from this cast, it would be Lakeith Standfield.

Best Album: Portugal. The Man - Woodstock
Runners-up: Hippo Campus - Landmark, Poppy - Poppy.Computer
Thoughts: Love the sound that Portugal. The Man brings to the table.

Best Soundtrack or Score: The Greatest Showman
Runners-up: Blade Runner 2049, Baby Driver, Coco
Thoughts: One of the truly underrated films this year is The Greatest Showman. That's because it has some of the best songs featured in films this year.

Best Scene: Superman vs. The Flash from Justice League
Runners-up: Rey and Kylo vs. Praetorian guards from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Halley and Bobby yelling match in The Florida Project

Thoughts: Justice League is a pretty poor movie overall, but there is one redeeming sequence for me and that's the fight between Superman and the rest of the Justice League. Specifically, Superman's fight with The Flash is the highlight for me. The moment I saw Clark's eyes spot Barry Allen moving at super speed, I had a total nerdgasm. Seeing them fight and how Barry is still slightly faster than Clark was everything I could have wanted from a fight between the two superheroes.

Worst Movie of the Year: My Little Pony: The Movie

Runners-up: The Emoji Movie

Thoughts: Remember The Powerpuff Girls? Remember how it was a cartoon TV series and then they announced a movie? Remember how that movie felt completely foreign to what we all loved about the franchise? That's exactly how the My Little Pony movie feels like. It doesn't hold any of the wonder and charm that the series has. Very shame.

Crush of the Year: Poppy
Runners-up: Reina Triendl, Naomi Lorraine Frank, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes
Thoughts: Lots of changes this year. I've recently started to really enjoy Poppy with the release of the album Poppy.Computer. It has some of the best pop songs of the year on it and she's just as intriguing as ever.

Best returning TV Series: Game of Thrones
Runners-up: Rick and Morty
Thoughts: Dragons. Come on, man.

Best new TV series: Riverdale
Runner-up: Erased
Thoughts: A CW show inspired by Archie Comics is not a show I thought I would fancy, but here we are. Season 1 was a great who-dun-it with lots of wicked fun. Season 2 didn't exactly start out all that well, but it's still an engaging effort.

Best anime series: Little Witch Academia
Runners-up: My Hero Academia
Thoughts: No anime stood out so spectacularly for me this year, but being able to watch Little Witch Academia with my girls has been a really pleasant experience.

2D crush of the year: 2B
Runner-up: D.Va, Rem
Thoughts: She's been everywhere this year.

Best new console video game: Super Mario Odyssey
Runner-up: Nier: Automata
Thoughts: Super Mario Odyssey brought back everything I loved about Super Mario 64 and even a bit of Super Mario Sunshine. The fairly open and creative worlds with incredibly new characters and techniques really added a lot to the series.

Best new PC video game: Nier: Automata
Runner-up: Hidden Folks
Thoughts: Until we get Kingdom Hearts 3, Nier: Automata will hold me over quite well as an action-style RPG game.

Best music video: "Venus Fly" by Grimes feat. Janelle Monae
Runners-up: "HEAT" by BROCKHAMPTON
Thoughts: This video makes Grimes and Janelle Monae look so badass. Love it.

Most listened to song not from 2017: Tame Imapala's "The Less I Know The Better"
Runner-up: Lushlife & CSLSX's "Body Double"
Thoughts: "The Less I Know The Better" has officially secured a spot in my top 10 favorite songs of all-time. It's so good.

Best meme: Distracted boyfriend
Runners-up: Trash dove, Omae wa mou shindeiru

Best smartphone app: Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
Runners-up: PewDiePie's Tuber Simulator, VRV, Chick-Fil-A
Thoughts: While it's not a new Animal Crossing game, it still did a good job holding me over for a little bit.

Past lists:
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011

Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 00:32:00 +0000

Happy New Year. Here is my "Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2018" list. This list includes movies that are most likely getting wide releases and will be possible blockbusters. This is only my opinion.

#10 Avengers: Infinity War - It all comes down to this. While I have not been the biggest fan of the movies that Marvel has made up to this point, I respect and realize the enormous franchise that they have created. This movie will be bringing nearly all of the biggest names together, including the Guardians of the Galaxy. The Russo Brothers will be directing again and I couldn't think of a better experienced duo to do it since they are responsible for one of my favorite Marvel movies, Captain America: Winter Soldier.
Release date: April 27, 2018
Trailer:

#9 God Particle a.k.a. Cloverfield 3 - Look, I like the Cloverfield movies. J.J. Abrams is somehow able to build these mysterious worlds that part of just has to learn more about. I'm even a subscriber of the Cloververse subreddit where me and a bunch of nerds do their best to decipher more information from the Cloverfield universe. Not much is know about this next Cloverfield movie other than it takes place in space with a bunch of astronauts. I am hoping that it will explain where the creature from the first movie came from.
Release date: TBA 2018
Trailer: Nope

#8 Sicario 2: Solado - 2015's Sicario was a sleeper hit that captured me in a way I haven't felt since No Country For Old Men. On the outside, the pacing of it seems slow, but director Denis Villeneuve had a very artistic way of keeping the movie interesting. Writer Taylor Sheridan is back to write the sequel, but the helm will be taken over by Stefano Sollima, Sollima is an establish Italian director who had made some gritty cop dramas both on the silver screen and small screen, so I am hoping he can match what Villeneuve has already built.
Release date: June 29, 2018
Trailer: Not yet

#7 Annihilation - Ex Machina was one of my favorite films of 2014 and basically put writer and director Alex Garland on the map. With a bigger budget and a bigger star in Natalie Portman, Garland is looking to adapt a movie from the sci-fi book written by Jeff VanderMeer. I don't know much about the book, but I'm hoping for the same style of film we got in Ex Machina.
Release date: February 23, 2018
Trailer:

#6 First Man - Whiplash and La La Land are two of my favorite movie from the last four years. To me, director Damien Chazelle is going places and I want to follow him wherever he goes. First Man is his next film, which will also star La La Land's Ryan Gosling. This movie is a biographical drama based on the life of the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong. I am excited to see what Chazelle can create in what will probably be a more direct film than he has done before.
Release date: October 12, 2018
Trailer: Not yet

#5 Isle of Dogs - Wes Anderson is one of my favorite directors. I even have his Moonrise Kingdom poster hanging up in our movie room. Isle of Dogs will be his return to stop motion animation, which is what he also did for 2009's brilliant Fantastic Mr. Fox. I remember not expecting much from Mr. Fox before I first watched it, but what I found was a super delightful family film with that Wes Anderson twist that we all love so much. My only worry is that Fantastic Mr. Fox was based on Roald Dahl's famous children's book while Isle of Dogs is, as far as I know, straight out of the mind of Mr. Anderson. Still, I think it will be a good watch no matter what.
Release date: March 23, 2018
Trailer:

#4 Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 - Despite the epic fail by Disney not calling this movie "Ralph Wrecks the Internet," I am still very much looking forward to the sequel to 2012's Wreck-It Ralph. I loved the first movie as it was an original story told in a setting that brought a sense of nostalgia for me and my early gaming times. I am excited to see what games can be featured in this film now that I am assuming the arcade or the game itself is going online. On top of that, I am glad that Rich Moore is still directing with the original voice cast reprising their roles, as well.
Release date: November 21, 2018
Trailer: Not yet

#3 Ready Player One - I have said it over and over again: I am a sucker for Spielberg. There is something so magical about his movies to me. Even the most boring of premises (*cough* War Horse *cough* *cough* The Terminal *cough*) end up being highly entertaining to me. This one looks like a whopper though as it is based on the very popular 2011 sci-fi novel of the same name written by Ernest Cline.
Release date: March 29, 2018
Trailer:

#2 Incredibles 2 - I have no idea why it has taken so long for Disney/Pixar to come out with this movie, but we are finally here. We are finally in the year that a sequel to 2004's The Incredibles comes out. Brad Bird, the writer and director of the first film, is back to write and direct the second film and I could not be happier about that fact. Going by the teaser, it looks like this film will take place not too long after the events at the end of the first film, which is an intriguing thing. This is going to be so much fun.
Release date: June 15, 2018
Teaser:

Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for...

#1 - Fifty Shades Freed- Sike!

#1 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - The feeling I got after watching 2016's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was eerily similar to my reaction after watching the first Harry Potter movie. I was amazed by this new world that writer J.K. Rowling thought up and wanted to learn more. Now, obviously this isn't an entirely new world, but it sure feels that way with the new characters and locales. I'm ready for more. While I'm still not please with director David Yates continuing to direct anything that has to do with Harry Potter, The Crimes of Grindelwald being at the top of my list represents my need to learn more about story from Rowling. Will we see Voldemort? Will we see Harry's dad, or granddad? Will Queenie join the dark side? All have been talked about and theorized, and I can't wait to find out the answers.
Release date: November 16, 2018
Trailer: Not yet

Past lists:
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006

Top 20 Movies of 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 21:36:00 +0000

Here is my "Top 20 Movies of 2017" list. This list is as of the date this entry was posted and has probably changed if you are reading this much later. Overall, I found this year to be one of the weakest years for cinema in recent history. TV and video games seem to be making a big comeback lately for me. As always, this is only my opinion.

#20 The Meyerowitz Stories

#19 Okja

#18 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

#17 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

#16 Logan Lucky

#15 The Greatest Showman

#14 Icarus

#13 Get Out

#12 Paddington 2

#11 The Florida Project

#10 Lady Bird - Greta Gerwig's solo directorial debut proves that she is capable of being more than an actress. Her voice behind this film resonates throughout and it's one of the more mature coming-of-age films I've seen. Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf are fantastic in this movie. Gerwig and her husband Noah Baumbach just might be the most powerful directing couple in the world.

#9 Baby Driver - The majority of films that appear on my list this year are projects of passion. Okja, The Greatest Showman, Get Out, and Lady Bird are just a few examples of movies that came to be because the filmmakers were incredibly passionate about bringing these stories to life through film. Baby Driver is another one of those projects where director Edgar Wright knew the story he wanted to tell and worked hard to make this a dream come true for him. And it works on so many levels. Not only does it have one of the best soundtracks of the year (Wright has always been greatly influenced by music), but it has some intense car chase sequences and a deep story to boot.

#8 Dunkirk - Dunkirk confirms two things: 1) That old war is chaos, and 2) That Christopher Nolan definitely has a style. YouTuber Little White Lies calls it "Christopher Nolan's Time Puzzle." That's what nearly all of his movies are. Memento, which made Nolan big, is all about time. Not only does it tell its story in reverse order, but it is interspersed with scenes from a time that we're not sure about in the movie. But it all comes together at the end. The Prestige messes with time in a more straightforward, flashback way, but hides all of its answer in plain sight. Inception takes us levels and levels deeper, where time moves slower and timing is a carefully calculated plotpoint. I can't get into Interstellar's time musings without ruining the ending, so fast forward to Dunkirk. How can Nolan mess with time while telling a story based on the true events of the World War II Dunkirk evacuation? The answer lies in the entire film, which comes together in a symphony of story and feels.

#7 The Big Sick - Indie film of the year goes to Kumail Nanjiani's The Big Sick. It's a personal tale based on the true story of how he got involved with his wife, Emily Gordon. The film brings about the familiar tones of early 2000s indie films, but with Nanjiani's natural humor. It's a funny movie and the whole cast is incredible, including Zoe Kazan, Ray Ramano, and Holly Hunter.

#6 Wonder - At first, Wonder looks like one of your typical run-of-the-mill American family films about bullying or being different. However, that's only a quarter of the story that Wonder has to tell. It explores quite a few varying themes around the lives of average school-aged children. It's generally pretty effective in its ability to deliver a positive message to all the youngsters out there. This is one of those films that I can see being a regular showing at schools all across the country and possibly even the world. Writer and director Stephen Chbosky is proving to be quite the filmmaker.

#5 Coco - Pixar knocked this one out of the park for me. It feels like it has been a long time since they've really struck an emotional chord with me on one of their films. Their last three films just haven't made me feel anything. Actually, I think 2015's Inside Out might be the last time I had an emotional response to a Pixar film and that was only because of Bing Bong. But in comes Coco to really deliver an impactful punch to the gut with themes around family, memory, and music.

#4 Blade Runner 2049 - When I first heard the whisperings of Hollywood talking about making a sequel to 1982's Blade Runner, I thought, "No. Can we please leave this one alone?" Then I heard Denis Villeneuve got involved to direct. Then I heard they convinced Harrison Ford to come back. Then I heard Ryan Gosling was going to star. Then I heard Jóhann Jóhannsson was going to compose the music (he ended up not). All the things converted me into a full-fledged fan who followed the production of this film every step of the way. And it delivers. It delivers big time, but not in a Ridley Scott way, but more of a Villeneuve way, which is what we needed. The look, the sound, the feel of this world brings tingles down my spine. It's a gorgeous addition to the franchise that I love to watch again and again.

#3 Thor: Ragnarok - And the award for most fun film of the year goes to Thor: Ragnarok. Those who know me well know that I'm not the biggest Marvel movie fan. The majority of them are incredibly generic superhero films that do nothing to freshen the genre or movie-going experience. I'm a big fan of director Taika Waititi, so when I heard he was helming the third installment in the Thor series, I was skeptical. How could this New Zealander bring his style to the Marvel universe? Well, I don't know how he did it, but I'm sorry I ever doubt him. The humor, the look, the feel... everything about Ragnarok oozes Waititi's style of directing. I remember sitting in the theatre during the climactic battle never wanting this story to end. It's the first time a Marvel movie has made me feel this way. This is, without a doubt, my personal favorite Marvel film yet.

#2 The Shape of Water - I've been calling director Guillermo del Toro a one-hit wonder for about a decade now. Pan's Labyrinth is a masterpiece. It's also the only good movie he's made. Every time a project of his comes up, I'm ready for him to redeem himself, but I just end up walking out of the theatre full of disappointment. Until now. The Shape of Water not only brings back the Guillermo del Toro touches that I loved in Pan's, but it shows his true love for cinema. That includes all kinds of cinema, from monster movies to musicals. The Shape of Water is gorgeous, it's captivating, and it's a remarkable film. Unfortunately, this only makes del Toro a two-hit wonder, in my opinion, but if I have to wait for another quality film of his every 11 years, I'll be happy to remain patient. Thank you for this film experience, Guillermo.

Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for...

#1 - The Emoji Movie - Sike!

#1 Columbus - "Lost in Translation, but in Columbus, Indiana" is how this film was pitched to me. Comparing a movie to Lost in Translation alone is enough to get me to see a movie, but I'm so pleased to say that Columbus is so much more than that simple description. I understand the similarity between the two since both have a younger female protagonist still searching for her path in life with an older male protagonist who is there to show her that tragedy in one's life doesn't necessarily go away with age. There's an intimacy between the two that highlights more of the architecture of human conversation than anything more romantic or sexy. Just like the fascinating architecture one can find in Columbus.

Runners-up: Wonder Woman, Darkest Hour

Movies I didn't see that received good reviews: Logan, The Salesman, The Red Turtle, The Disaster Artist, John Wick: Chapter 2, Wind River, Meyhem, Silence, Phantom Thread, The Post, Mudbound.

Past lists:
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005

Top 50 Singles of 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Fri, 29 Dec 2017 21:58:00 +0000

This page can take a little bit to load. OR, you can just check out all of the songs on my convenient Spotify playlist.

This was a great year for music. I would say that song was the best medium of entertainment this year. Instead of explanations on why each of these songs are worthy of your ear-holes, I like to just let the music speak for itself. Enjoy.

50. BOSCO feat. St. Beauty - "Castles"

49. Pheeno feat. Sam Abel and Ray Damron - "Glass"

48. Aaron Sprinkle feat. Elle Puckett - "Invincible"

47. Flagship - "Mexican Jackpot"

46. Black Honey - "Dig"

45. Kedr Livanskiy - "Ariadna (ариадна)"

44. Brett - "Tell Me All the Dreams You Been Havin'"

43. Oohyo - "PIZZA"

42. Hippo Campus - "Monsoon"

41. Ariel Pink - "Feels Like Heaven"

40. Flor - "warm blood"

39. Zola Jesus - "Exhumed"

38. Deafcult - "Rubix"

37. Hammock - "Things of Beauty Burn"

36. Portugal. The Man - "Live in the Moment"

35. Vessels with The Flaming Lips - "Deflect the Light (Dub)"

34. Hans Zimmer - "Sea Wall"

33. Phum Viphurit - "Long Gone"

32. Lana Del Rey feat. The Weeknd - "Lust For Life"

31. Cults - "Gilded Lily"

30. Poppy feat. Charlotte - "My Style"

29. Calvin Harris feat. Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry, Big Sean - "Feels"

28. Acceptance - "Fire and Rain"

27. Phoenix - "J-Boy"

26. Julien Baker - "Appointments"

25. Cowgirl Clue - "Cherry Jubilee"

24. yaeji - "Feel It Out"

23. Washed Out - "Million Miles Away"

22. Anna Lunoe, Valentino Khan, Wuki - "Bullseye"

21. Habstrakt & Dombresky - "Antigone"

20. Imagine Dragons - "Thunder"

19. Poppy - "Bleach Blonde Baby"

18. Bohdi feat. Belan - "Home"

17. Shabazz Palaces feat. Thaddillac - "Shine a Light"

16. Foster the People - "Sit Next to Me"

15. BROCKHAMPTON - "HEAT"

14. Hippo Campus - "Way It Goes"

13. Portugal. The Man - "Tidal Wave"

12. Kero Kero Bonito - "Forever Summer Holiday"

11. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - "原宿いやほい"

10. Polo & Pan - "Nana"

9. Portugal. The Man - "Feel It Still"

8. Hammock - "This is Not Enough (Epilogue)"

7. Eisley - "Defeatist"

6. Paramore - "Hard Times"

5. Remo Drive - "Art School"

4. Kendrick Lamar - "HUMBLE."

3. Taylor Swift - "Delicate"

2. Wolf Alice - "Don't Delete the Kisses"

1. Perfume Genius - "Otherside"

Other Best of 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 15:03:00 +0000

With the Oscars nominations out today, I figured now would be a good time to list out all of my other favorite things from 2016.

Best Actor: Ryan Gosling in La La Land and The Nice Guys
Runners-up: Paul Dano in Swiss Army Man, Daniel Radcliffe in Swiss Army Man, Tom Bennett in Love & Friendship

Thoughts: What a good year for Baby Goose. Not only was he hilarious in The Nice Guys, but he was in one of the best films of the year with La La Land. 2017 will bring us three more good Gosling movies as he'll play Neil Armstrong in First Man, a starring role in Terrence Malick's Weightless, and opposite of Harrison Ford in Blade Runner 2049.

Best Actress: Mary Elizabeth Winstead in 10 Cloverfield Lane and Swiss Army Man

Runner-up: Amy Adams in Arrival
Thoughts: My crush on MEW might be over, but she had an amazing year in film and television. She led in 10 Cloverfield Lane, which was a tense and creepy story. Then she played the crush in Swiss Army Man and represented the "WTF!?" part of the audience that views that movie. She was also in the fairly acclaimed television shows Mercy Street and BrainDead, though I have seen neither. Next up for her is season 3 of the Fargo series on FX.

Best Breakthrough Performance: Auli'i Cravalho in Moana
Runners-up: Ferdia Walsh-Peelo in Sing Street, Morfydd Clark in Love & Friendship
Thoughts: One takes many risks when casting a no-name to voice your new starring character, but Cravalho in Moana is better than just about anyone else in the film. I hope to hear and maybe even see more of her in the future.

Best Soundtrack or Score: Swiss Army Man
Runners-up: Sing Street, La La Land
Thoughts: Easily the best soundtrack of 2016. Put four guys in a recording booth and have them hum and make sounds and say words. That would be one thing. But compile those hums, sounds, and words into catchy song and you have some of the most creative music in film in a long time.

Best Scene: Tiny green balls from Love & Friendship
Runners-up: The fart scene in The BFG, final dance number from La La Land, the final showdown from Hell or High Water, the dog scene from The Lobster

Thoughts: There were actually quite a few movies this year that got some big belly laughs out of me, but none were better than any scene featuring Sir James Martin in Love & Friendship this year. The 12 Commandments scene is also genius, but it was the tiny green balls scene that got me the most.

Crush of the Year: Reina Triendl
Runners-up: Felicity Jones, Taylor Swift
Thoughts: Lots of changes this year with the exception of Felicity Jones.

Best returning TV Series: Terrace House: Boys & Girls in the City
Runners-up: Rick and Morty, Game of Thrones
Thoughts: This was actually the first time I've seen Terrace House, but since it's a returning series, it goes here. Imagine The Real World mixed with Big Brother and The Talking Dead. Here me out now. It's like The Real World in that it's an unscripted reality show. It's like Big Brother in that it mostly takes place in a house with cameras everywhere. Finally, it's like The Talking Dead in the sense that it talks about the show we are watching. Twice per episode, we cut to a room full of commentators who talk about what is occurring on the show. It provides some great insight, analysis, predictions, and comedy.

Best new TV series: Westworld
Runner-up: Erased
Thoughts: The first half-season of Westworld was TV gold to me. The second half left a bit to be desired for my tastes, but it was still an addictive and engaging story. If you haven't heard already, Westworld is about a sort of theme park experience where you can pay to travel back to the old west. Here, you can live out your western fantasies all under the control of the company that built the park, as well as the thousands of A.I. inhabitants. It's a soft mix of sci-fi and western here that gives this show its edge.

Best anime series: Erased
Runners-up: My Hero Academia, Re:ZERO
Thoughts: No anime stood out so spectacularly for me this year, but there were some that came close. Erased is definitely my favorite of the year because it had such an intriguing mystery behind it.

2D crush of the year: D.Va
Runner-up: Rem, Kosaki Onodera
Thoughts: Overwatch brought in many baes this year, but none are better than my D.Va.

Best console video game: Final Fantasy XV
Runner-up: Titanfall 2
Thoughts: I've been looking forward to Final Fantasy XV for 10 years. Of course, back then it was known as Final Fantasy XIII-Versus. It was to be the first action RPG in the Final Fantasy series instead of the normal turn-based genre. Well, they did it, and while it doesn't have the fluidity I was hoping would carry over from the Kingdom Hearts series, it is still very, very good. I have 80 hours in the game and still show no signs of stopping.

Best PC video game: Overwatch
Runner-up: Stardew Valley
Thoughts: Overwatch is easily my favorite video game of the year. Blizzard has created the perfect first-person shooter with unique characters, a full backstory, and gripping action. Overwatch has been so successful that they are creating a eSports league out of it that I'm positive lots of people will be hearing more and more about in the near future.

Best music video: "Shelter" by Porter Robinson and Madeon
Runners-up: "Because I'm Me" by The Avalanches, "Genghis Khan" by Miike Snow
Thoughts: The story behind the making of this song and music video is great. It was basically a dream come true for Porter Robinson to team up with a profession anime animation studio and make this video. It is high quality, and the song is also my favorite of the year.

Most listened to song not from 2016: CL's "Hello Bitches"
Runner-up: HOME's "Resonance," Taylor Swift's "Wildest Dreams"
Thoughts: There are songs that slip by me in previous year that I end up loving later. These are the top three that played on my playlist that aren't from 2016.

Best viral video: Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen
Runners-up: @hemtube's cat, You on Kazoo Trap Remix, Damn Daniel, Die Woodys
Thoughts: Shout out to @hemtube's cat because it was a close one, but PPAP's epic popularity status is the only reason it comes out on top for me. While in Japan earlier this year, my wife and I could not escape the PPAP popularity.

Best smartphone app: Pokémon Go
Runners-up: PewDiePie's Tuber Simulator, VRV, Chick-Fil-A
Thoughts: While the popular Pokemon app isn't perfect, especially at launch, there is no doubt that it literally moved people in a way never seen by a smartphone app before.

Past lists:
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011

Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Sun, 01 Jan 2017 18:30:00 +0000

Happy New Year. Here is my "Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2017" list. This list includes movies that are most likely getting wide releases and will be possible blockbusters. I am also doing a Top 10 Most Anticipated Indie Movies list that will be posted soon. This is only my opinion.

#10 Justice League - With the understanding that there is no way this can top Marvel's Avengers films, there is still a great sense of excitement to finally see Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg fight together on the big screen. We're likely going to have to deal with some weak writing and directing, but the thing that is for certain is the amazing Zack Snyder-directed action scenes. That is enough for me to look forward to it.
Release date: November 17, 2017
Trailer:

#9 Wonder Woman - The part I actually enjoyed the most in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was seeing Wonder Woman kick some ass. Gal Gadot is a great pick for the part as she looks, sounds, and fights the way I have always imagined Wonder Woman. I'm excited that we the people of this world will finally get a feature film showing her story after 75 years of her history in existence. Let's hope this one is good and leads to more female-led superhero movies (Spider-Gwen, please).
Release date: June 2, 2017
Teaser:

#8 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - Even though Martin McDonagh has only done two movies until now, he's a very exciting writer/director to follow. In Bruges, for which he won a writing Oscar, is still a great and hilarious movie. Meanwhile, there were plenty of things to like in Seven Psychopaths, especially for film buffs. No other trailer has made me laugh as hard this year as Three Billboards. The movie stars Frances McDormand as a mother who is trying to get the local police chief to work harder on finding her recently murdered daughter's killer. She gets his attention by painting three large billboards that lead into her town. This dark comedy has a fantastic cast that includes Woody Harrelson, Peter Dinklage, and Sam Rockwell.
Release date: October 13, 2017
Red Band Trailer:

#7 God Particle a.k.a. Cloverfield 3 - I love the Cloverfield franchise. It's so mysterious, brave, and original. The next installment in the series looks to be God Particle. It's about astronauts in space dealing with some strange phenomenon, so maybe it's a precursor to the Cloverfield events? Or it could be a result of the attacks that ended 10 Cloverfield Lane. Either way, I'm in.
Release date: October 27, 2017
Trailer not yet released.

#6 Spider-Man: Homecoming - Spider-Man is one of my all-time favorite comic book superheroes. Homecoming will be his new reboot with actor Tom Holland. I like what they did with him in Captain America: Civil War. He was sharp, quick, and funny. Homecoming looks to carry on these trends and we'll get to see some familiar Avengers characters like Iron Man and Captain America. My only worry for this film is its fairly inexperienced director and half dozen writers, but I guess we'll see.
Release date: July 7, 2017
Trailer:

#5 Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - The first Guardians of the Galaxy made my top 20 of 2014 list as a fun, fresh, and funny Marvel comic book movie. So, of course I am looking forward to the second installment. All of the major players are back, but this time we've got Kurt Russell playing a pretty major role. Things I am hoping for in this one are an even more threatening villain, more history on the Guardians, and lots and lots of Baby Groot.
Release date: May 5, 2017
Trailer:

#4 Baby Driver - Edgar Wright is finally back! It has been four years since the release of The World's End and two years since he left the Ant-Man movie, so we're experiencing the longest drought in Wright films we've ever had. Thankfully, Baby Driver seems to have all the action and humor we've been needing from him. The cast looks great with the title character being played by Ansel Elgort. He will be supported by Jon Hamm, Kevin Spacey, Lily James, Jamie Foxx, and Jon Bernthal.
Release date: June 28, 2017
Trailer:

#3 Dunkirk - Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite directors, so I am naturally excited for any new movie he puts out. One of Nolan's trademarks seems to be taking a bunch of characters or events and tying them all together in a masterful climax at the end of the film. Think Inception, Interstellar, and The Prestige. We all know what happens in Dunkirk, so it'll be even that much more important that Nolan brings this story together, which is to be told from three perspectives: the air, land, and sea.
Release date: July 21, 2017
Trailer:

#2 Blade Runner 2049 - I'm a huge fan of Blade Runner. The world that Ridley Scott, Hampton Fancher, and David Peoples created from Philip K. Dick's novel is simply gorgeous. The music, the acting, the effects, the cinematography... everything about this movie is a masterpiece. Like many, I was hugely skeptical when I heard whispers of a movie sequel. However, as the production built its cast and crew around it, I got on board. Of course Harrison Ford will be back to play his role of Deckard, but Edward James Olmos will be back to reportedly briefly play Gaff. Other than the two, the cast will be pretty new with the additions of Ryan Gosling, Jared Leto, Robin Wright, and Dave Bautista. A positive move for me is Ridley Scott taking the back seat and serving as executive producer while hiring Denis Villeneuve to take the director's chair. Villeneuve is quickly climbing up my most respected directors list as he's made amazingly powerful films like Arrival, Sicario, and Incendies. His craft will go well with the Blade Runner universe. We've got the world renowned cinematographer Roger Deakins shooting this movie. Will he finally get his Oscar? Also, Jóhann Jóhannsson will be doing the score, which hopefully stands up to the original.
Release date: October 6, 2017
Trailer:

Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for...

#1 - Fifty Shades Darker - Sike!

#1 Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi - For three years running, Star Wars is at the top of my most anticipated list. How could it not be? Especially this one since it is being directed by one of my top 10 favorite modern directors, Rian Johnson. Brick is one of my top ten favorite movies of all-time and Looper is an amazing time travel action film. Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy has already said that Johnson is "on his way to standing alongside many of the great filmmakers I had the opportunity to work with. He writes as beautifully as he directs, and he writes amazingly, fierce and independent women." What an endorsement! Plus, we'll finally see more of Mark Hamill as Luke and J.J. Abrams has already praised his performance as Oscar-worthy. Other things I hoping to have revealed in this next episode are where Rey comes from, Captain Phasma doing something badass, and Kylo and Snoke's master plans.
Release date: December 15, 2017
Trailer:

Runners-up: T2: Trainspotting, Thor: Ragnarok, The Dark Tower, Alien: Covenant, Logan, Get Out, Mother!, Annihilation, Under the Silver Lake, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

Past lists:
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006

Top 20 Movies of 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 20:23:00 +0000

Here is my "Top 20 Movies of 2016" list. This list is as of the date this entry was posted and has probably changed if you are reading this much later. Like last year, there were a lot of similar themes in movies for 2016. Musicals, incredibly bizarre, and trapped in places are some that I think of off the top of my head. I think this was actually one of the weakest years in cinema in a long time. No movie this year made me stand up and go, "Yes! This is it! This is the best movie of the year." There are still plenty of good movies and great performances, but I don't think I will look back on the films of 2016 with very much fondness. As always, this is only my opinion.

#20 Love & Friendship - I never thought a Jane Austen film would ever make any of my lists, but here we are. This is due to the great care that writer and director Whit Stillman takes with the Austen's novel, Lady Susan. All of the performances are simply lovely, but none are better than that of Tom Bennet as Sir James in what is certainly the most comedic role of the year. This is a delightful period piece that may come to surprise you in its quality, simplicity, and charm.

#19 Kubo and the Two Strings - Kubo is mostly on this list because of its gorgeous stop-motion animation. Liaka keeps getting better at doing this. I say this nearly every time they release a new movie, but it is difficult to see a difference between their work and traditional 3D animation. I love the originality behind this movie's story, which has pleasurable twist. For a kids film, there is a lot for adults to enjoy in this one.

#18 Midnight Special - This marks Jeff Nichols' fourth time collaborating with actor Michael Shannon. The two were made for each other. Midnight Special feels like new territory for Nichols though. Perhaps it's also his most approachable movie yet. A young boy who possesses special powers goes on the run from the government and a cult with his dad and an assistant. Nichols grasps for his inner Spielberg in this movie, which I feel finally has a satisfying ending.

#17 Manchester by the Sea - And the winner for most depressing movie of the year goes to Manchester by the Sea. This is a tough watch. Don't get me wrong, it's very good with some of the best performances of the year, but geez. Casey Affleck plays a man whose brother passes away. He is made the guardian of his brother's teen son, but he's also dealing with a lot of trouble in his life.

#16 The Nice Guys - There aren't very many good buddy cop movies these days despite Hollywood seemingly pumping out 4-5 of these every year. However, The Nice Guys nails it. It's unforgiving and hilarious in a dark humor sort of way. The more I think about it, the more I believe that Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling were truly an odd pairing, but that's what good buddy cop movies do. Co-writer and director Shane Black is a pro at this by now since he's responsible for all of the Lethal Weapon movies.

#15 Zootopia - My favorite American animated film this year was definitely Zootopia. I think it's safe to say that I am placing my entire trust is Disney Animation these days. They released two amazing original films this year. Zootopia is a vast world rich with story because it takes place in an animal kingdom where humans never existed. Or, heck, maybe they do and an interesting sequel will be pulled from the mouse house. This movie is funny, cute, and very sweet. My kids love it.

#14 Arrival - This is not the alien movie you think you are going to see. Instead, what you get is a finely tuned motion picture that uses a form of storytelling not often seen these days. Without ruining things, I'll just say that you have to see it. Just don't expect any big action sequences or aliens destroying things. If someone had told me that this movie was made by Christopher Nolan, I probably would have believed them.

#13 Don't Think Twice - A movie that might have snuck by most people in 2016 is this brilliant comedy. Don't Think Twice is about a New York City improv group that gets a visit from a fictionalized SNL-type show. One of their members gets a part on the show and the movie follows all of the complications a close-knit group like that can go through when all of a sudden one of them becomes a star. There's an even mix of comedy and sadness in this movie that is crafted well by writer, director, and star Mike Birbiglia.

#12 Lion - Boy, this movie tugged at my heartstrings and I don't even know why. I've never gotten lost on a train. I've never had to fly to a different continent to get adopted. I've never had to search for my real family. But director Garth Davis does such a fine job of filming these elements and more. If you haven't heard of this film, it's based on the true story of a boy who got lost in India and was later adopted by an Australian couple. Now an adult, and with the invention of Google Maps, he tries to trace down his roots and hopefully meet his family again.

#11 Hunt for the Wilderpeople - Taika Waititi is just on a roll. 2014's What We Do in Shadows was one of my favorite films of the year. Hunt for the Wilderpeople came out of nowhere for me. Unlike Eagle vs. Shark and Boy, which I anticipated, I had no idea this movie was coming out. You would know my obvious enjoyment from this incredibly loving film. It's about a juvenile delinquent who keeps getting passed off from foster home to foster home. He finally finds a woman who he allows to take care of him, but whose husband actually despises him. When she suddenly passes, they are left to take care of each other. Waititi has Thor: Ragnarok coming out in 2017.

#10 Hell or High Water - This one actually surprised me by how much I enjoyed it. Written by Sicario's Taylor Sheridan, Hell or High Water is about two brothers who resort to robbing a chain of banks in order to save their family's land in West Texas. I love the economic messages in this movie, as well as the amazing dialogue that is delivered expertly by Chris Pine, Ben Foster, and Jeff Bridges.

#9 The Edge of Seventeen - The Edge of Seventeen eventually made its way into my most anticipated of the year list after its first trailer. It just has one of those stories and tones that I always connect with. Hailee Steinfeld plays a socially awkward high school girl whose best friends starts dating her brother. Her brother, on the other hand, is a very popular outgoing jock who is the life of the party at most times. What I like about the movie is that it doesn't just deal with one dynamic of teenage life. Her brother has problems, too. So does a male classmate of hers. It's a very John Hughes way of approaching adolescence on the big screen.

#8 Green Room - This one flew under the radar for me until I had heard about it getting really good reviews at Cannes and the Toronto International Film Festival. Green Room is about a punk band who find themselves playing a concert at neo-Nazi skinhead venue when they accidentally witness a murder. For the majority of the film, the band members are trapped in the green room of the concert venue and have to escape. While not a horror film in terms of the supernatural, this is a pure horror film. If you've ever wanted to see Captain Jean-Luc Picard play an evil skinhead, this might be your only chance.

#7 Moonlight - At the top of many lists I've read this year is this movie. It's very deserving as the film is one of the best coming-of-age films there are. The film takes place in three stages of a boy's life, or really, three acts. It explores the difficulties of sexuality and identity while growing up in a tough environment. The emotional performances are what really get you though. Everything is done so naturally, almost in a documentary manner. If any movie gives La La Land a run for its money this awards season, it'll be Moonlight.

#6 The Lobster - The Lobster premiered at Cannes in May of 2015 and five months before that, it placed at #5 on my Top 10 Most Anticipated Indies of 2015 list. It didn't get released here until two full years after its Cannes premiere, and even then, it was difficult to find a theatre playing it. But, I did finally get to see it and it sure did not disappoint. This movie feels like it was directed by Wes Anderson if he had the mind of David Lynch. Men and women go to a resort hotel to find love in a certain amount of time. If they do not find love, they will be turned into an animal of their choosing. It is one of the movies on my list this year that I place under the incredibly bizarre title, but everything about it is so good. The acting, the score, the story, and the locations are all perfect.

#5 La La Land - I'm hesitant to get excited about indie directors' sophomore films because I've been stung one too many times. Just look at Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko → Southland Tales), Andrew Niccol (Gattaca → S1m0ne), and Neill Blomkamp (District 9 → Elysium) to name a few. So, when I first heard about Damien Chazelle's second major film, I was a little worried. Then I heard he was making a musical and I got even more worried. His Whiplash in 2014 was my favorite film of the year and it still gives me goosebumps when I re-watch it. Well, rest-assured that Chazelle beat the sophomore slump with La La Land. While I don't think it is as redeeming as Whiplash, La La Land is still a great time at the movies. It will win plenty of awards and the music will replay in your head for days.

#4 Sing Street - Believe it or not, La La Land is not the best musical of the year. This title should go to Sing Street, a humble movie co-produced from production companies in Ireland, the United States, and the UK. The film takes place in Ireland in the 1980s, which is reason enough to see this film. However, you will also come to find some great young performances, a heartwarming story, and the best songs to come from any movie in 2016. The $4 million budgeted film played at Sundance, was nominated for a Golden Globe, and went on to make $13 million in the theatre. You need to see this.

#3 Swiss Army Man - I admittedly had a difficult time getting into this movie, at first. It is entertaining to a part of your brain that you didn't know you had. When I talk about this movie to people who haven't heard of it before, the first thing that I say is that it's weird. Paul Dano plays a young man who is stranded on a deserted island and is just about to hang himself when the dead body of Daniel Radcliffe washes up on shore. From there, mix a little bit of Weekend at Bernie's and Cast Away as if they were directed by Michel Gondry. Alright, I lifted that comparison from Variety because I just don't know how to describe it. But listen, this film will grow on you as long as you can get past its bizarreness. There's a lot of symbolism that I didn't catch until the second viewing and I went from disliking the ending to actually really appreciating it later. It's a film that sticks with you, and that's a good thing.

#2 The Handmaiden - To this day, Oldboy remains to be my favorite film of all-time. Director Chan-wook Park hasn't really lived up to the high expectation I have set for him since then. That is, until The Handmaiden. Inspired by a Sarah Waters written novel, this movie is a twisty, well-crafted film that will shock you not once, and maybe not even twice. With some wonderful performances and cinematography that rivals any of the other top films of the year, this is what I have been waiting for Chan-wook Park to do.

Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for...

#1 - Nine Lives - Sike!

#1 Kimi no na wa. (Your Name) - Makoto Shinkai is without a doubt my favorite anime director. If you have not seen any of his work, you are really doing yourself a disservice. Don't just shrug his stuff off as weird Japanese anime stuff. His movies are the most realistic and gorgeous animation you will find in the genre. Kimi no na wa takes place in two different areas of Japan: urban Tokyo and the countryside of the fictional Itomori, which was inspired by Lake Suwa. You really get to see Shinkai-san's animation shine in this movie because of the two locales, which I'd like to think is a common theme with all of his movies. A boy from Tokyo and a girl from the countryside switch places at random leading to some comical, and later, very emotional scenes. There is also an element of time travel, which always does something for me. Kimi no na wa has really taken Japan by storm this year. It is currently the fourth highest-grossing film of all-time in the country, domestic or imported, behind Spirited Away, Titanic, and Frozen. That makes it the second-biggest domestic film ever, behind the Oscar-winning Spirited Away. It is also the first anime not directed by Hayao Miyazaki to earn more than $100 million at the Japanese box office. It topped the box office in Japan for a record-breaking 12 non-consecutive weekends. It held the number-one position for nine consecutive weekends before being toppled by Death Note: Light Up the New World in the last weekend of October. It returned to the top for another three weeks before finally being dethroned by Hollywood blockbuster Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Do what you can to see this movie and all of Shinkai-san's other work.

Runners-up: Finding Dory, Moana, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Deadpool.

Movies I didn't see that received good reviews: Little Men, Fences, Train to Busan, Hail Caesar, Sully, Jackie, Hacksaw Ridge.

Past lists:
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005

Top 50 Singles of 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:20:00 +0000

This page can take a little bit to load. OR, you can just check out all of the songs on my convenient Spotify playlist.

This was a great year for music. I would say that song was the second best medium of entertainment this year, right behind video games. Instead of explanations on why each of these songs are worthy of your ear-holes, I like to just let the music speak for itself. Enjoy.

50. Sing Street - "Girls"

49. PHASES - "I'm in Love With My Life"

48. Funeral Suits - "Tree of Life"

47. Gallant - "Shotgun"

46. Justin Timberlake - "Can't Stop the Feeling"

45. Wheeler Walker Jr. - "Eatin' Pussy/Kickin' Ass"

44. Fergie - "M.I.L.F. $"

43. NYVES - "Pressure"

42. blink-182 - "Bored to Death"

41. Twenty One Pilots - "Heathens"

40. St. Lucia - "Dancing on Glass"

39. Swiss Army Man soundtrack - "Cave Ballad"

38. Body Language - "Just Let It"

37. The Electric Swing Circus - "Empires"

36. Brett - "Street Cleaning"

35. LVTHER feat. Myzica - "Some Kind of Magic"

34. Yumi Zouma - "Barricade (Matter of Fact)"

33. M83 - "Do It, Try It"

32. La La Land - "City of Stars"

31. Death Grips - "Eh"

30. Requin Chagrin - "Adélaïde"

29. Miike Snow - "The Heart of Me"

28. Yoste - "Chihiro"

27. Eternal Summers - "Together or Alone"

26. Swiss Army Man soundtrack - "Montage"

25. 888 - "Critical Mistakes"

24. White Sea - "Arcadia"

23. Marian Hill - "Down"

22. Bad Lip Reading - "Bushes of Love"

21. DNCE - "Cake by the Ocean"

20. Vallis Alps - "Young"

19. Japanese Breakfast - "The Woman That Loves You"

18. Lisa Mitchell - "The Boys"

17. Elohim - "Bridge and the Wall"

16. Flume feat. Kai - "Never Be Like You"

15. Aidan Knight - "What Light (Never Goes Dim)"

14. Hazel English - "Never Going Home"

13. Wetter - "who"

12. A$AP Mob feat. Juicy J - "Yamborghini High"

11. Dua Lipa - "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)"

10. Quincy Vidal - "Chi'ren"

9. Mike Posner - "I Took a Pill in Ibiza (Seeb Remix)"

8. The Avalanches - "Because I'm Me"

7. Miike Snow - "Genghis Khan"

6. machineheart feat. Vanic - "Circles"

5. Kero Kero Bonito - "Break"

4. Jai Wolf feat. The Chain Gang of 1974 - "Drive"

3. DJ Shadow feat. Run the Jewels - "Nobody Speak"

2. Hippo Campus - "Boyish"

1. Porter Robinson and Madeon - "Shelter"

Japan Trip 2016: Days 7 & 8 - Shibuya, Ikebukuro, and Leaving Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 05:46:00 +0000

Day 7 was our last full day in Japan. Our first stop for the day was Kappabashi Dori in the Asakusa area of Tokyo. Really quick though... pictured above is the courtyard to the hotel we stayed at in Tokyo. Highly recommend the Hotel Villa Fontaine Tamachi. It felt like a more fancy version of a business hotel. Pretty affordable, 3-5 minute walk to Tamachi Station along the Yamanote Line, and quiet.

Before 6 a.m. that morning, we were woken up by shaking and tremors. Yep... earthquake. It is now known as the 2016 Fukushima earthquake, which was a magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck 180 miles northeast of us in Tokyo. When we felt it, I moved Bethany to the bathroom near the tub just in case the building were to collapse. We were high up on the 18th floor, so the building swayed a lot! Kind of like a ship in a big storm. Thankfully, this earthquake was not as strong as the 2011 earthquake that caused almost 16,000 deaths. No deaths reported for this one. In fact, they said this was likely an aftershock from the 2011 earthquake. Not fun.

The city continued on with their daily lives normally. Kappabashi Street in Asakusa is where one would go to find a lot of kitchen and restaurant supplies in Tokyo. There are a handful of fake food shops that sell pre-made, as well as do-it-yourself, fake food models. I bought a fake bowl of ramen and a strawberry shortcake magnet while Bethany bought a DIY fake beer kit along with a gyoza keychain.

After that quick visit, we headed to Shibuya and visited Hachiko. He was right where I left him during my last trip.

I showed Bethany the Shibuya crossing, which is always so mesmerizing. Video down below shows how busy it was on this day.

We had lunch at Uobei Shibuya Dogenzaka, which is a unique sushi place. Now, Bethany and I are not sushi eaters. Just not a fan of the texture and flavors of raw anything. However, I scoped this place out and noticed that they have cooked food, too, like fried chicken, french fries, and ramen.

The sushi we did try were these pork chasu and slightly seared salmon, as well as some not pictured hamburger sushi. The pork one was probably my favorite, but that's because it was like eating bacon with rice. The other dishes we tried were just okay.

What's really fun and different about this place compared to your typical sushi restaurant or even conveyor belt sushi place is how your food is delivered to you. You order on a touch screen and then your food is delivered straight to your seat automatically via a tray that runs on rails. People call it "Bullet Train Sushi."

From there we visited some stores like Animate and Shibuya 109. Then we went to the Disney Store. The setup was adorable and there were a lot of unique merchandise items there that I haven't seen anywhere else. Tsum Tsums are reaching the end of their popularity, but we found a similar product called Ufufy that seemed to be the next big thing. They are bigger and squishier than Tsum Tsums and each one has a mild sweet scent to them.

We dropped down under Shibuya briefing to browse all the foods of the Tokyu Food Show. It's hard to describe this place as I have seen nothing like it in the U.S., but it's basically a giant food court made up of a variety of fancy and sometimes expensive foods of all cuisines. I bought this strawberry shortcake. It was very, very tasty, but not quite the best one I've had in Japan.

In the evening, we attended the Robot Restaurant show. You've probably seen videos of it appear online before as it's a very crazy and very Japanese performance show consisting of loud music, dancing robots, and scantily clad ladies.

Part way through, they let the whole audience borrow light sticks so you can wave them around to the best of the music.

Bethany didn't particularly care for the show, but I thought it was lots of good fun. My best tip would be to find discount tickets online ahead of time. Also, if you plan to get drunk, drink ahead of time as the drinks in the venue are a bit pricey.

After the show, we had our last meal of Curry House CoCo Ichibanya. I always miss this place. They need to build one in Seattle!

Godzilla said goodbye to us on our way back to Shinjuku Station to go to our hotel. Last full day was complete.

On Day 8, we had a couple hours to spare before our flight, so we went up to Ikebukuro to visit the Pokemon Center as we had promised to buy the girls plushies of their favorite Pokemon. Well, they didn't have any of their favorite Pokemon plushies. In fact, they barely had any of the earlier gen Pokemon at all. The trip was a bust, but it was still a fun store to browse.

At the airport, I had ramen from Ramen Kagetsu Arashi, which is a chain in Japan. I also had this on the last day of my 2013 trip to Japan. Perhaps I should make this a tradition.

Last story to tell was that after going through security, Bethany made me realize that I forgot to drop off the portable WiFi that we had rented at the post office. I didn't want to leave and come back in as the security lines were long, so I asked a gate agent if there was a post office drop off area in the concourse. There wasn't, but the gate agent said she would be willing to take care of this for me by dropping the device off herself on her way out. This is the standard Japanese service I have come to expect and appreciate during my trips.

Over time, my answer to the question "Why do you like Japan so much?" changes. I think my response now would be that they are a culture of taking the simplest of things and enhancing them to the best that they can be. This is evident in their food like ramen. Look at how far this simple and satisfying dish has come. I love a culture that gives 110% to everything that they do. Now, that obviously can come at a cost as we know about how bad the work ethic can be for one's health in Tokyo, but I think they are making some good strides to improve that. And knowing how much they like to improve upon things, I'm sure they will fix it.

Here is the video from Day 7 of our trip:

I'm not going to post any tips and tricks of what we learned during this trip to Japan, but you can read those in the blog for my last day from my last trip here. I believe they all still apply.

Be sure to check out all of my Day 7 pictures here.

All previous days here:
Day 6
Day 5
Day 4
Day 3
Days 1 & 2

Japan Trip 2016: Day 6 - Arashiyama and Kyoto

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 07:00:00 +0000

On Day 6 of our autumn Japan trip, we started the day with the breakfast buffet on the 36th floor of the Swissôtel Nankai Osaka hotel. They had the most selection I had ever seen at a breakfast buffet before. The main reason for that was because they did their best to cater to Japanese, American, Chinese, and European breakfasts. That meant they had everything from natto to bacon and shifan rice soup to omelettes. It was intense and I don't think I got to try everything I wanted to. Plus, their freshly brewed English breakfast tea was the perfect partner to all of the foods. Regrettably, we only booked one night at the Swissôtel Nankai, so we had to check out.

The good news was that we were headed to one of my favorite places in all of Japan: Arashiyama.

Arashiyama is a district on the western outskirts of Kyoto.

I got a chance to go to Arashiyama on my first trip and fell in love with its nature-meets-city charm.

The goal was to be able to see some beautiful fall colors along the Mount Arashi mountainside by the river.

Boy, did Arashiyama deliver.

When in Arashiyama, it's nearly impossible to not go across this bridge known as Togetsukyō.

We spent a lot of time looking at the trees. Then Bethany looked at a nice kimono store. Then we headed to the railway station to get on the Keifuku Randen Tram Line.

We rode to the end of the line and then caught a cab to Kinkaku-ji Temple. The trees on the grounds were in full autumn bloom.

Just gotta say that this might be my favorite shot in all of my Japan 2016 photos.

Kinkaku-ji means Temple of the Golden Pavilion. The top two stories are covered in pure gold leaf.

Kinkaku-ji became a Zen temple when the shōgun that owned it died. His son granted him his dying wish of turning the villa into a Zen Temple. Though originally built in 1397, the structure people see today is of one that was rebuilt in 1955 after a monk burnt it down in 1950.

And while Kinkaku-ji is picturesque, I struggle to feel if the trip to the site is worth it considering it is kind of out of the way, costs 400 yen to get in, and, in the end, is just a golden temple out next to a pond. I guess I would say prioritize places like Fushimi Inari, Kiyomizudera, and Arashiyama over this. Once you've seen most of Kyoto's biggest sites, then you can go see this.

We took another cab to the train station and then made our way to Yasaka Shrine and Maruyama Park.

That's where we ended our day, including a walk down Shijō-dōri, at night. We had a curry dinner in the park and then made our way to Kyoto Station to take the last bullet train back to Tokyo.

Video from Day 6 in Arashiyama and Kyoto here:

Be sure to check back for my Days 7 & 8 report, which include our last days in Tokyo!

Also, be sure to check out all of my Day 6 pictures here.

Japan Trip 2016: Day 5 - Nara and Osaka

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 07:35:00 +0000

On Day 5, we checked out of our hotel in Tokyo and headed towards Shinagawa Station to board one of the earliest bullet train shinkansens towards Kyoto.

Right before departure, we bought some pork katsu sandwiches to eat for breakfast on the train.

In Kyoto, we changed trains to heads towards Nara. Nara is the capital city of the Nara Prefecture located in the Kansai region of Japan. I had never been to Nara before, so this was a first for me. The first thing you will notice about Nara is the free roaming deer. The deer are considered heavenly animals, protecting the city and the country.

For a few hundred yen, you can buy deer crackers at stalls along the paths in Nara Park.

The fall colors were at peak while we were there. It was gorgeous.

The deer will come up to you and bow their heads for pieces of the deer crackers you can feed them. It's the closest you are going to feel like being a Disney princess.

The walk towards Tōdai-ji Temple has you pass a pretty pond with an old wooden boat in it.

Tōdai-ji is a Buddhist temple that is a listed UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was built in the early 8th century.

Inside, it houses the world's largest bronze statue of Buddha Vairocana. This guy was massive.

As cool as the temple and deer are, I cannot get enough of the fall colors. After being in Japan during cherry blossom season and fall color season, it's still really hard for me to pick a favorite.

Still, feeding the deer was pretty neat.

Bethany with the backdrop of fall colors.

There were many food vendors along the main path in the park, so we grabbed some yakisoba and sausages to eat for lunch. I also had a strawberry daifuku for dessert.

We hopped back on the train and headed a little more west to Osaka. Our next stop was Osaka Castle.

Osaka Castle is one of Japan's most famous sites and played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century of the Azuchi-Momoyama period.

The castle is actually a reconstruction of the original castle and has a museum inside. If you look closely, you can see people at the very top who are getting a good view of the city around it.

We did not go into the castle this time, but I might do it next time just for the view. As you can see, the fall colors were also pretty here.

After Osaka Castle, we traveled a little further into the heart of Osaka city. The area known as Namba is where you'll find where we stayed at, the 4-star Swissôtel Nankai Osaka. My awesome uncle was able to hook us up with a great rate on a super nice room here. The city view was incredible and there was more space than five of our Tokyo hotel rooms combined.

After we checked in, I went to the pool and swam some laps. Despite being a more western-style hotel, the hotel still does not let people with tattoos in the pool area because of the stigma still around it. That meant Bethany could not join, but she took a nice bath in the big tub anyway.

My uncle was also able to hook us up with the executive club. In the evening, they have an area where you can grab a bite to eat and get free drinks. I tried some Japanese plum wine and loved it.

In the evening, we ventured out to Dōtonbori, which is the main shopping, food, and nightlife area of Osaka. The city has embraced the oldschool neon lights, so it's a really fun area to look around.

Areas like this in Japan are always my favorite. It just feels like a modern jungle. That, and Blade Runner.

We ate dinner at this very popular and highly rated ramen place. They specialize in a very strong shoyu (soy sauce) ramen, but I think it was a little too strong for us.

We did a little bit of shopping at the huge Don Quijote they have in Dotonbori and eventually made our way back to our huge and cozy hotel where we slept like babies.

This is the view from the elevator lobby on our floor. As you can see, on the right side they had some Christmas light up.

Video from Day 5 in Nara and Osaka here:

Be sure to check back for my Day 6 report, where we go up to Kyoto and Arashiyama!

Also, be sure to check out all of my Day 5 pictures here.

Japan Trip 2016: Day 4 - Akihabara

noreply@blogger.com (Cam-Fu) — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 00:57:00 +0000

Our fourth day in Japan greeted us with the only rain we'd see on our trip. We bought clear umbrellas at our local 7-Eleven and made our way to my favorite place in the whole wide world, Akihabara!

Above is a very close representation of what I look like in Akihabara.

Akihabara is the anime/gaming/otaku capital of the world. Anime merch, gaming stores, arcades, maid cafes, and souvenir shops are aplenty here.

I was not brave enough to try a maid cafe on my last trip because I was solo and thought it would be a little odd. With Wifey by my side, I had nothing to worry about, but it turns out that a ton of single men go there for lunch anyway!

If you don't know anything about maid cafes, they are not as scandalous as you might be thinking. It's just another weird and out there thing about Japan like many other things. The drinks and food are pretty tasty, but a little overpriced. The reason for that is the maids who are there to entertain you, or play games with you, or just be someone for you to talk to. Modern day geisha in a sense.

We went to the highly recommended @Home Cafe. First you order a package. They typically come with one drink, one entree, and one picture with a maid of your choice. Others can include dessert and your chance to play a game with a maid. All of the maids are super kawaii and you perform little chants on your food before you consume them. It's all very silly, but fun if you don't take it too seriously. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take video from inside, so there's no footage in the vlog.

After our maid cafe experience, I took Bethany to a surprise, which happened to be another cafe. An owl cafe!

Akiba Fukurou doesn't actually serve drinks and snacks like a normal cafe, but they do have close to two dozen different kinds of owls that you can take picture of, pet, and even hold!

This quickly became one of the highlights of our trip. Neither of us had held owls before and they are just amazing to observe.

There are a couple options for owl cafes in Tokyo. We chose this one because we heard the owls have a little more space.

Will definitely return when I go back to Tokyo.

After the owl cafe, we went to Yodobashi Camera. This is like Best Buy or Fry's Electronics, but multiplied by nine because there are nine floors. There's even a large food court on the eighth floor and a golf driving range on the roof. I could spend all day here, and in fact, that's exactly what we did. We browsed the store and bought a ton of stuff to take home.

Video from inside the store and all of the other events here:

Be sure to check back for my Day 5 report, where we pack a small bag and head out of Tokyo to Nara and Osaka!

Also, be sure to check out all of my Day 4 pictures here.